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SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 
MICHAEL A. MORRISON 



SIDELIGHTS ON 
GERMANY 

Studies of German Life and Character 

During the Great War, Based on the 

Enemy Press 



BY 

MICHAEL A. MORRISON 

// 




NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



^6 






COPYRIGHT, 1918, 
BY GEORGE EL DORAN COMPANY 



MAY -4 1918 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©GI.A497158 

M In i 



PREFACE 

In this volume have been brought together selec- 
tions from articles which have appeared in the Daily 
Chronicle since the early months of the Great War, 
and having as their object the portrayal of German 
life and character as these have been affected or 
modified under war conditions. In nearly every 
case the source from which the articles have been 
drawn has been the German newspaper Press or 
well-known and widely circulated German periodi- 
cals. The articles have been sifted with great care, 
and only those have been used which, in the judg- 
ment of the writer, throw needed light on the con- 
ceptions entertained by the German nation of their 
duty and world mission, on their attitude towards 
their enemies, on their ambitions and dreams of 
world-dominion, and on those remarkable psycholog- 
ical developments of the race which have evoked 
the amazement or horror of the greater part of civi- 
lised humanity. 

A widespread desire has been expressed to give 
greater permanence to some of the more valuable 
of these Sidelights than is possible in the ephemeral 
columns of a daily newspaper, and it is to meet this 
desire that the present compilation has been made. 

Much attention has been necessarily bestowed on 
the German dream of dominion in the Near and 
Middle East. Throughout this entire struggle Ori- 
ental Empire has run like a red thread woven into 
the fabric of their ambitions. Their ambition has 



vi PREFACE 

not been so much to Germanise countries which by 
any intelligible, ethnological process of reasoning 
can be regarded as Teutonic, as to advance the great 
imperial conception of a world-system under Hohen- 
zollern sway stretching from the coast of Flanders 
to the confines of India. With sure instinct German 
political writers have felt that the extension of their 
influence in the Balkans, in Asia Minor, in Mesopo- 
tamia and Persia, and their mastery of the Straits 
and of the Suez Canal would bring them nearer to 
the longed-for day when a decisive blow might be 
struck at the power of Britain, and the vast inheri- 
tance of our Eastern Empire pass into the hands of 
the German conqueror. 

In the following pages we see the attitude of the 
people towards these schemes, their enthusiastic ac- 
ceptance of them, their predisposition and readiness 
to dream dreams of Oriental Empire, and their 
gloating satisfaction that the new and splendid em- 
pire should be acquired at the cost of their bitterest 
enemy, and mark the downfall of this enemy's world- 
dominion. 

Considerable space has also been given to articles 
which aim at throwing light on modern German 
conceptions of religion and morals. A close exami- 
nation of the materials here offered will show that 
religious and didactic authorities have invariably 
sought to square the principles of religion and the 
higher ethic with the war practices and sentiments 
prevalent among the "Volk in Waffen." Where 
difficulties of reconciling the two arise, religion and 
the higher ethic are made to assume a complexion 
or a shape which simplifies the process of squaring. 
Great theological luminaries, famous ecclesiastical 
historians, renowned authorities on the training of 



PREFACE vii 



youth, are presented to us In these pages as condon- 
ing the darkest national crimes, and so obscuring 
high moral issues in the Interests and in defence of 
the criminals. 

Another important object which this book has in 
view is to illustrate the gradual change of German 
war sentiment from the period of easy contempt of 
their enemies, from the period of frenzied jubilation 
and confidence in victory which characterised the 
nation in the early mlonths of the war, to the dawn- 
ing sense that all was not well, and that Germany 
was being confronted with the hostility of the civi- 
lised world. The articles displaying the proud as- 
surance of the early period may be easily distin- 
guished from those of the past twelve months, in 
which we can clearly recognise the first muffled notes 
of unmistakable despondency. 

Finally, It may be well to mention that In the se- 
lection of these articles it is not intended that a 
perverse or oblique light should be cast on the Ger- 
man nation, or that their conduct and aims should 
be held up to obloquy merely for the gratification 
of any national hatred or contempt. The object has 
rather been to seek truth, and to give such a fair 
presentation of German life and character as will 
extenuate or palliate nothing which calls for repro- 
bation, and at the same time to set down naught in 
malice. 

It Is of the utmost Importance that we entertain 
well-defined conceptions of the attitude and aim,s of 
the German people. The strain of the war upon 
them, the three years of wearing anxiety through 
which they have passed, their bitter disillusionment 
In so many directions, the ever-growing hostility of 
the civilised world, and the gathering fear that all 



Vlll 



PREFACE 



their hopes, ambitions, and visions of world-empire 
will fade away like a desert mirage have powerfully 
influenced and continue to influence the national 
character. It will be to our advantage to learn all 
we can of the nature of the dangers still to be en- 
countered from the enemy astride our path, and it 
is as a modest contribution to our knowledge of the 
enemy that this book has been written. 



CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I 

GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 

PAGE 

The Progress of Kultur — In Praise of Kultur — Real and False 
Kultur — Racial — Determination and Despondency — Patriotic 
Feelings — Vce victis — Consolation — Psychology of Trench Life 
— Hate — ^The Spider's Web — "That Man on his Island" — 
Divine Approval of Hate — In Praise and Defence of War — 
War the Regenerator — War the Purifier — War a Biological 
Necessity — The World's Dislike — Herr Rohrbach's View — ^Thc 
Neighbour's Envy 15 

CHAPTER n 

PASTORS AND PROFESSORS: THE RELIGION OF GERMANS 

The Valley of Dry Bones — Huns and Christianity — Eminent Theo- 
logians: Apocalyptic — A Great Theological Light — A Trucu- 
lent Pastor — Heaven in Allegory — The German Professor — 
Nothing to Apologise For — What is Humanity? — The Leader 
of the Monists — Harnack and the Princes 41 

CHAPTER HI 

CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS 
War Pedagogy — Voices of Children — Future Careers .... 57 

CHAPTER IV 

BERLIN AND HAMBURG 

Street Scenes — ^Thinking Deeply — ^Esthetic Teas — Big Orders: 
No Workmen 65 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER V 

COLONIES AND COLONIAL EMPIRE 

PAGE 

A German Colonial Empire: A Hamburg View — A Colonial Museum 74 



CHAPTER VI 

ORIENTAL DOMINION 

Orient and World Trade — New Route to India — Bagdad the Centre 
— Bosphorus, Suez Canal, Egypt: Control of the Bosphorus — • 
Relations with Turkey: Speechless with Admiration of the 
Turks — Kladderadatsch and the Turks — Kurds and Germans 
— ^To Revivify Arabia — ^To Revivify Persia 80 



CHAPTER VII 

THE NAVY AND MERCANTILE MARINE 

England's Trump Card — The Mercantile Marine: The Hanseatic 

Spirit 94 

CHAPTER Villi 

THE kaiser's MAJESTY 

In a French Church — Near Lodz — At Church in Vilna — Near 
Verdun — Soldier and Saint 102 



CHAPTER IX 

HINDENBURG 

The Hindenburg Cult — "O Hero of Tannenberg!" — Hindenburg 
at Church — Hindenburg Dithyrambics — Hindenburg in Sculp- _., 
ture "^113 



CONTENTS xi 



CHAPTER X 

THE PRESS AND ITS WRITERS 

PAGE 

The Journalist of the Future — Hating England — The Hand of 
Peace — Harden of the Zukimft — Sour Criticism . . . .119 



CHAPTER XI 

ZEPPELINS AND FRIGHTFULNESS 
Defending the Raiders — The Great Destruction — Scoffing at Mas- 



130 



CHAPTER Xn 

WAR MONUMENTS 

Commemorating the Dead — A Mountain Monument — Nailing: 
The Hindenburg Idol — Hindenburg in Gold and Iron — The 
Angels and Hindenburg 138 



CHAPTER Xni 

WAR ART: PICTORIAL AND MUSICAL 

An Illustrated Journal — Angels of Death — The German Spring — 
Music: Police Music — Patriotism and Operas^' Deutschland 
UberAIles" 146 



CHAPTER XIV 

TH(EATRES AND THE DRAMA 

•The Franctireurs"— "The Devil's Politics"— "The War Recon- 
ciles" — "The German Armourer" 154 



xii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XV 

POETRY AND WAR SONGS 

PAGE 

The Emden — For Children — Up at Britannia! — Albion — A Bread 
Hymn — England'sjFlag — The^Sword of Judgment — ^The Arch- 
angel and a Poet — A Clerical Poet . . . .' . . . .. l6o 



CHAPTER XVI 

BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH 

Are we Hypocrites? — England, a Lie — The Anglo-Saxon Soul — ^The 
World's Tyrant — Perfide Albion — London Pictures . . . 169 



SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 



SIDELIGHTS ON 
GERMANY 

CHAPTER I 
GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 

The Progress of Kultur — In Praise of Kultur — Real and 
False Kultur — Racial — Determination and Despond- 
ency — Patriotic Feelings — Vcb victis — Consolation — 
Psychology of Trench Life — Hate — ^The Spider's Web 
— "That Man on his Island" — Divine Approval of 
Hate — In Praise and Defence of War — War the Re- 
generator — War the Purifier — War a Biological Ne- 
cessity — The World's Dislike — Herr Rohrbach's View 
— The Neighbour's Envy. 

The war-psychology of Germans, the phenomena of 
their mind during these years of terrific strain, is a 
subject of the utmost interest and importance. In 
selecting the passages which follow, care has been 
taken to avoid everything in the nature of idiosyn- 
crasy, a matter with which, properly speaking, 
psychology has nothing to do. Our object has been 
to reveal, within our limits, a general picture of the 
niind of the nation, its feelings and cognitions as 
affected by war, or by the position in which it finds 
itself in relation to its enemies. 

With the object of obtaining this picture let us 

15 



1 6 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

first of all endeavour to understand what the Ger- 
mans mean by the word "Kultur." It figures in all 
their claims to distinction. It is pre-eminently their 
Kultur, they say, which entitles them to the supreme 
position in the world which they are determined to 
occupy. We shall call three exponents of Kultur to 
testify to the nature and value of this product of 
German civilisation — the eminent theologian, Dr. 
Seeberg; Baron von Gleichen-Russwurm, a descend- 
ant of the poet Schiller; and the Cologne Gazette. 

The Progress of "Kultur" 

Dr. Seeberg, next to Adolf Harnack, the greatest 
theological luminary in Berlin, has been lecturing on 
"War and the Progress of Culture." Germany, 
ever since the Reformation, in all her efforts after 
"Kultur" has preferred the "Kultur" of the Ideal to 
that of the Real. This striving of hers is to be 
sharply distinguished from the "Kultur of the Mer- 
cantile," which is England's highest aim, and from 
the French "Kultur of Rentes," which is the most 
vulgar "Kultur" in the world, and leads to an empty 
and bombastic liberalism. As to Russia, it is the 
land of reaction, of absolute despotism, of suppressed 
personalities. 

Germans in this war, the professor insists, are not 
murdering civilisation, nor are Germany's sons 
merely fighting for their Fatherland, but for the 
heart of history and for the most sacred values of 
hunaanity. The lecturer, in a fervid peroration, im- 
plored his hearers to hold the cup in readiness into 
which would drop the ripe fruit which Germany's 
victorious warriors would bring home with them. 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 17 



In Praise of Kultur 

In an article on French civilisation the Cologne 
Gazette compares this fine flower of French growth 
with German Kultur, greatly to the disadvantage of 
the former. The journal tells us what German Kul- 
tur is. It is the perfecting of human existence, both 
in the man himself and in his externals. Kultur 
works both in the soul and in the body. Its aim is 
to elevate the spirit and make more beautiful the 
human body. The more Kultur a people possesses 
the purer are its feelings, the more humane its dispo- 
sition, the more chaste all its expressions of life. Kul- 
tur does not seek the formation of an elite, rather 
the drawing together of the entire nation for the 
prosecution of better objects and conditions of life. 
In all its work Kultur sets an ideal before itself, and 
in the case of Germany, especially, this ideal is one 
of goodness and supreme virtue. 

Kultur, we are told, is as a refreshing, purifying, 
invigorating breeze over a miasma-laden atmos- 
phere. It clears away the vapours engendered in 
the swamps of so-called civilisation. The Kultur of 
Germany is calculated to refresh, purify, and invigo- 
rate the world. 

Real and False Kultur 

Baron Alexander von Gleichen-Russwurm, a 
great-grandson of the poet Schiller, lectured recently 
in the great hall of the Reichstag before an audience 
which filled the place to its utmost capacity. His 
subject was "Our Kultur Superstition and our Kultur 
Faith." Baron von Gleichen is one of the best 



1 8 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

known writers in Germiany on purely literary sub- 
jects. 

Many of the German conceptions of Kultur, said 
the baron, are vague ideas about matters which have 
only ephemeral interest, and have nothing in com- 
mon with real Kultur. "Fashionable shibboleths," 
he calls most of these matters. Very few people 
have a real and clear conception of what Kultur 
means, and that is why the word plays so wretched 
a role in this war, a dangerous role because it seeks 
to cover up dangerous realities. We have come to a 
new Tower of Babel, and the nations no longer 
understand one another. The fault is largely that 
Germans are far too addicted to the superstitions of 
Kultur and are losing the power of independent 
thought. 

Kultur in its conception is an agricultural term, 
and might be taken to signify well-tilled land which 
has been rendered habitable. Translated into the 
spiritual and intellectual, Kultur means Human 
Dignity; and it is to some extent the fault of Ger- 
mans that in this war true human dignity has suf- 
fered so much shipwreck. "Thought has been a 
rare guest in this land of thinkers and poets. All 
our education, our art, our convivial conceptions, 
our entire public life is dominated by half-under- 
stood catch-words, and this is not Kultur, it is Kul- 
tur-supersti-tion." 

This war, continued the speaker, has taken care 
that not one stone of the old superstitions will rest 
on the other; and if Germans have any wisdom left 
they will see to it that after the war they will build 
again from the deep foundations, and escape for ever 
from "the Tyranny of Zero." There has been more 
than enough of the domination of the State, of the 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 19 

community. Real education, the education of the 
individual as a man and a soul, must be re-intro- 
duced. For after all, men and women are souls and 
spirits, not machines, or cogs on the wheels of ma- 
chines. 

Racial 

Otto Hauser, a well-known poet and essayist, has 
written a book on the supremacy of the blonde race, 
Race and Race Questions in Germany, which receives 
much attention throughout the country. 

The Blonde Conqueror 

It is Herr Hauser's view, supported by the events 
of this war, that the blonde-haired Northern race is 
destined to exercise dominion over all the nations 
of the world. All that mankind has done worth 
doing — great deeds, great thoughts, great words — 
has been the work of the blonde race. Their pre- 
ponderance over the other races, "Polar or Equa- 
torial," is undisputed. In so far as they maintain 
their race in its purity are they conquerors in all the 
realms of hum;an activity. The more they intermix 
with other races, the more they degenerate and lose 
in nobility. 

The blondness of the German race in this war is 
a guarantee that the race will be victorious over the 
"Polar" Russian and the Latin Frenchman. The 
British are so mixed as a race as to be absolutely 
negligible. Herr Hauser deals with the fact that 
great men have appeared among dark-haired races 
in a quite summary way. He claims that an im- 
mense majority of those men of genius were blonde- 



20 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

haired or the descendants of blonde-haired progeni- 
tors. He begins with David, the Royal Psalmist, 
who was blonde; but he passes over Solomon and 
the Prophets as doubtful. He asserts that the great 
men of classic Greece were blonde, and that Dante, 
Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci were also fair- 
haired. He is not quite sure about Shakespeare, as 
we have no records, but Napoleon was certainly- 
blonde in his youth. Goethe is troublesome, for he 
had brown eyes and black hair, but Herr Hauser 
points out that Goethe was not a faultless genius, 
and that in hundreds of his verses there are grave 
blemishes. 

Herr Hauser casts his gaze into the future and 
finds the Germanic blonde race marching from con- 
quest to conquest, until the whole world, with all its 
varieties of hair, is at its feet. Between now and 
the final triumph of blondness it might be advisable, 
he says, to abstain from admixture with Southern 
blood, and to foster as much as possible all inclina- 
tions towards the blonde races of the North, where 
strength, virility, and the sureness of victory alone 
reside. "The Northern Blonde Man is the limit and 
highest perfection of the human race." The Ger- 
man variant of the Blonde Man, rendered proud 
and assured by conquest, will rule the universe. 

Determination and Despondency 

In the third year of the war, when the earlier san- 
guine notions about a speedy conclusion to hostilities 
and complete victory had become more sober, and 
the nation had begun to realise that the task before 
them was beset with difficulties of an almost in- 
surmountable character, two currents of thought be- 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 21 

gan to appear side by side, one expressive of the 
determination of the people to hold out, the other 
indicating the growth of a feeling very much akin 
to despair. 

Patriotic Feelings 

Numerous articles have been appearing lately in 
the ultra-patriotic Press dealing with the superiority 
of German patriotism over that of other countries. 
Just as the German in his soul and in his intellectual 
development is the superior of all others, so is his 
love of country on a higher plane. In the Tdgliche 
Rundschau we have an article entitled, "The Patri- 
otic Feelings of Germans," from which a few char- 
acteristic sentences may be quoted. 

"Why," asks the writer, "do we not allow our- 
selves to be starved? Why are we not alarmed? 
Why do we not bend? Why do we not throw away 
the sword under the impulses of exhaustion, weari- 
ness, and despondency? Whence come these illimit- 
able successes of ours, whence this courage, this en- 
durance, this high sense of sacrifice? 

"Our high spirit is not a mechanical thing, the 
result of good schooling, wise calculation, and or- 
ganisation. Behind it all there is something far 
greater, stronger, more penetrating. Patriotism 
with us is an affair of honour. Faithfulness even 
towards a sinking, ruined, and debt-laden Father- 
land is the duty of every man of honour, even when 
pain and sorrow are exhausting his life-blood. 

"Even were Germany poor and weak, without 
Kultur, without greatness, we, her children, must 
remain true to her, even till death. And even 
should all other lands sparkle before our eyes in 



22 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

brilliance and riches and power, it would be a dis- 
grace to bend the knee before them, and forget or 
betray our poor Fatherland. To act thus would be 
to act without honour and without Kultur." 

"ViE ViCTis" 

In an explosive article headed "Vae Victis," the 
Kolnische Zeitung alludes to the indescribable woe 
which will overtake the Fatherland should the enemy 
get the upper hand and force Germany to her knees. 
The situation is so threatening and the work of des- 
troying the onslaughts of the enemy so gigantic that 
the writer, in a final flourish, exclaims, "Therefore, 
German Siegfried, seize thy Balmung firmer and let 
him rain down the hardest blows. Up, my people., 
the flame-signals smoke!" 

The article begins with "Gotterdammerung," the 
Twilight of the Gods, which has a sentence to itself. 
We are told that the Norns of Destiny are whisper- 
ing their uncanny language. With bated breath the 
world is listening, asking what the coming days, 
weeks, months will bring. The most fearful drama 
in all the changing history of mankind begins. On 
the strongly fortified front stretching through the 
wildernesses of Russia, and over the barrier of the 
Carpathians, in Mesopotamia and Macedonia, from 
the Alps to the North Sea, there are sharp bursts of 
flame like evening lightning. 

It is a question, says the writer, of "to be or not 
to be." Germany has trodden many a thorny path, 
but none has been so thorny as this which must now 
be trodden. How many are there, he asks, who have 
actually realised the frightful seriousness of this 
coming gigantic wrestling for the existence and fu- 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 23 

ture of the nation? Those who are engaging in 
profiteering and usury are fallen on by the writer 
with fury and compared to vampires sucking the 
heart's blood of the people, fattening on the misery 
of their fellows, on the sacred need of the Father- 
land. 

Another category which comes in for some most 
ornamental denunciation are those who are con- 
tinually grumbling, who allow the small anxieties and 
needs of these hard times to obscure their vision of 
the great objects in view. "You are sinning against 
the Fatherland. What shall we eat, what shall we 
drink, wherewithal shall we be clad? are without 
doubt important questions, but man does not live by 
bread alone." 

The writer asks his compatriots whether they 
would live in plenty at the price of a foreign yoke? 
"Could we bear to be hindered in our spiritual and 
intellectual life? The people which have produced 
a Luther, a Kant, a Goethe, a Beethoven would be 
hungry and unhappy at full tables were they in 
slavery. Therefore all power to be united for the 
last gigantic deed. Let us devote fortune and treas- 
ure, life and body, thought and reflection to the one 
aim — the meeting of our enemy's attack, the secur- 
ing of our free development. 

"Our ascent to the sun makes our enemy envious. 
On the frontiers of our empire their envy and hatred 
beat. Germany Is to be humiliated, to be thrown 
back to its former impotence and unimportance." 

In frenzied sentences the writer holds up a picture 
of the woes which will befall the Fatherland should 
the hordes of Canada and Australia, Tonkin and 



24 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Senegambia break down the steel barriers and inun- 
date the German land. Shudderingly he describes 
how the Allies desire to place their feet on the neck 
of Germany. They would make of Germans a na- 
tion of beggars and ruin their industry and com- 
merce. Germaniam esse delendam is the inexorable 
cry from the Thames, the Seine, and the Neva. 
"Therefore, gather round your leaders in unanimity 
and determination." 

The concluding sentences reach dizzy heights of 
rhetoric. "The spirit of our ancestors, which a cen- 
tury ago shook off the yoke of Napoleon, once more 
spreads its pinions. A breath of that great time 
animates our days. We will risk all, dare all. Un- 
worthy the nation that does not risk all for its hon- 
our. It is this spirit which must blaze in our nation." 
And then the final flourish about the sword of Sieg- 
fried. 

German Consolation 

Dr. Johannes Miiller, a well-known professor of 
divinity, also a scientific pedagogue, fills half a page 
of the Tdgliche Rundschau with an article headed 
"German Consolation." The writer clearly feels 
the call to comfort his compatriots. Do not despair, 
is a phrase repeating itself a score of times in his 
article. Miiller is a popular lecturer, and what he 
says may be regarded as an attempt to meet and ex- 
orcise the evil spirit of despair which has begun to 
fret and nag at the vitals of a large section of the 
population. 

"German heart, don't despair; do what your con- 
science dictates," are Dr. Miiller's opening words. 
He praises the conduct of the war by Germany. 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 25 

"We have conducted this war on the principles of 
justice and humanity, and it was only against our 
wishes that we were compelled to resort to retaliative 
measures, only when all the paths of reason were 
closed to us. All along we have delayed using our 
sharpest weapons, and always to our own injury. 
And now, at the summit of our victorious defence on 
all fronts, we have offered peace to our enemies. It 
was only then, when our offer was refused, that in 
God's name we seized our very sharpest weapon. 
And this we did, moreover, because our conscience 
dictated the step. Therefore, German people, do 
not despair!" 

Dr. Miiller proceeds to implore the nation to be 
"comforted and strong." "We have suffered ter- 
ribly in body and soul. The losses to our manhood 
are frightful, but children will be born to us like 
the dew from the dawn, if we only have courage 
against death and need. That which we have pos- 
sessed In the world has all been taken from us, and 
our Kultur among all the nations has been destroyed ; 
but God will make full recompense. He has turned 
us in on ourselves, in order that we may find our- 
selves. Harden yourselves, German people; col- 
lect yourselves, strike roots into the depths. Spring 
will come again, and once more you will strike out 
your branches, a great world-tree. And should you 
be poor In this world's goods, you will be rich in 
yourselves. Should your Kultur collapse in ruins, 
have confidence in the future. Catastrophes are the 
forerunners of new creations. A new era will come 
after the twilight of the gods caused by the war." 

After this consolatory passage. Dr. Miiller tells 
his readers that one word, "Durch" (through) , rules 
the situation. But it must be a "through" which is 



26 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

unconditional, irremediable, ruthless, and to the 
point. "We have experienced this war as a visita- 
tion of God, and therefore we would carry through 
God's work on earth as in heaven, in physical-in- 
tellectual as well as in spiritual-divine things. And 
even though after the war but a remnant of us re- 
mains, we shall have All-Germany contained in this 
remnant. It will be a remnant which will develop 
more powerfully than ever before, because God is 
with us. Therefore, do not despair!" 

Dr. Miiller is not quite sure how the war will end. 
"We do not know how the war may end. But what- 
ever its end, victory or defeat, it will be something 
of which we have had hitherto no conception. What- 
ever its end, it will lead us from the narrow and 
confined into the spacious, from the depths to the 
heights, from dire necessity to salvation. It will 
open up for us a New Land of unsuspected possi- 
bilities which no enemy can take from us though the 
world were full of devils." 

The evil reputation which is Germany's in the 
world, the dislike and visible repugnance of other 
nations, is clearly having its effect on the nation. 
Professor Miiller faces the situation as follows: 

"German heart, do not despair, even though the 
entire world blackens and defames you, even though 
there seems no prospect of any diminution of the 
falsehoods and blasphemies which follow you and 
would pillory you as a monster before God and man I 
Despise all this pestilence of falsehood, laugh at it; 
but do not despair. What difference does it make 
what is thought of us? It only matters what we 
are. The enemy may condemn us all to hell; but 
so long as God beheves in us. and He does believe 
in us, it will be all right. 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 27 

"We have hardly any one left us in the world. 
We have become solitary, we are the outcasts and 
the forsaken among the nations. Those who once 
blessed us now curse us. Those who once ate our 
bread now tread on us, German heart, do not worry 
about this ! Ingratitude is the world's reward. The 
world would now gladly hang you and dance around 
your martyr's stake. It is all grotesque. Laugh at 
it. Laugh your sacred, freedom-giving laugh." 

Psychology of Trench Life 

Dr. Max Dessoir, Professor of Psychology at the 
University of Berlin, who has just returned from a 
research visit to the front, has been lecturing on the 
war as it relates to his particular branch of science. 
The first psychological effects of the war — an ex- 
treme tension and excitement, a storm of enthusiasm 
— has gradually given place to a sort of "exalted 
spirituality" of a more sedate character, of which 
the first and most evident outcome is generous sacri- 
fice. 

Psychologically considered, he says, the fighting 
army is a group of individuals who have become 
separated from their accustomed surroundings, and 
are now held together by a new unity of object and 
will. Their gigantic performances inside the new 
limits are only explicable by this unity of will. What 
has been accomplished is fabulous, all the more be- 
cause it has not been accomplished by intellectual 
athletes, but wholly and entirely by men who willed. 
And this will has shown itself so almighty because 
it is In the service of a super-personal task. 

With regard to life in the trenches Dr. Dessoir 
thinks that its most striking characteristic is the 



28 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

animalistic, the return to original types. The deca- 
dents and the aesthetes have again learnt the "rap- 
tures of the customary." But intellectual life is 
not at a high level. What the men read is only 
calculated to amuse them. If they attempt literary 
production their work is cheap and commonplace. 
Their art is far below their opportunity. Music is 
the most popular art, but it is only used as a "rhyth- 
mic stimulant." 

Noticeable is what Herr Dessoir calls a rare ele- 
vation of the inner man, a re-enlivening of the re- 
ligious sense. It is not, of course, the lecturer is 
careful to explain, religion in the confessional sense. 
Of this there is not a trace. The religious phenom- 
enon hangs together with the "healthy emotion and 
upheaval" which has been awakened in so many by 
a feeling that outside the powers which have been 
brought so near to them there are other powers col- 
lectively called Destiny. This takes the shape of a 
feeling of separation from all that is not in touch 
with actuality, from all that has only "a certain 
unending shadowiness" to recommend it. 

The religion Dessoir speaks of has nothing, he 
says, in comm:on with the behef of those who seek 
in creeds and dogmatic formulae some strengthening 
of their faith in the supernatural, or with the belief 
of those who regard certain shadowy Powers as 
loving, gracious, just, and paternal. It is a religion 
which simply says. Beyond those stern terrors with 
which I am in daily or hourly contact there is an 
overwhelming Something in whose hands is my Des- 
tiny, something omnipotent, omnipresent, inscrutable, 
unknowable, inevitable. Dr. Dessoir says that this 
feeling of utter impotence in the hands of Iron 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 29 

Destiny grows less acute when the soldier exchanges 
the trenches for life at the rear. 

The courage which German soldiers display in 
extreme danger and crisis is not the physical cour- 
age of the ordinary individual, nor yet the courage 
of moral conviction, nor yet that of the sportsman. 
In the very climax of danger it is not this ordinary 
courage which possesses them, rather is it the con- 
viction that it would be senseless to resist the un- 
alterable, and that almighty Destiny rules the hour 
for weal or woe. The fearful weight of these im- 
pressions, and the regularity of their recurrence, 
banishes the desire for self-preservation. 

Dr. Dessoir does not think that the psychology of 
the trenches will outlive the war. He hopes not. 
The souls of these men are not lovely or lovable. 
But the spirit of sacrifice may remain; also the cold 
ruthlessness which will tolerate no master in the 
world. 

Hate 

We cannot have a complete picture of the psychol- 
ogy of the German people without an examination 
of the passion of hatred which has obsessed the na- 
tion like an evil spirit from the beginning of the war. 
We have this feeling characteristically expressed by 
Dr. Fuchs in the Munchner, Medizinische Woche as 
follows: "Educate to Hate ! Educate to reverence 
of Hate! Educate to love of Hate! Away with 
the false fear of brutality and fanaticism I We must 
not hesitate blasphemously to announce, 'And now 
abideth faith, hope, and Hate, these three; but the 
greatest of these is Hate.' " 



30 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 



The Spider's Web 

History, says the Vossische Zeitung, knows no 
country which for so many centuries has so consis- 
tently and unscrupulously asserted herself as Eng- 
land. Rome shows nothing like it. At the present 
time Japan has some resemblance to England, but 
only Japan. British diplomatists were indeed skilful, 
but greater still was the stupidity of their victims. 
And that nation, whichever it was, that stood by to 
help England got its reward — a kick. That nation 
which was 'cute enough to unmask the hypocrite was 
laden with the full measure of British hatred. 

The Vossische is overjoyed that England hates 
Germany. It is an honour to be hated by such a 
country. And it was in the web of this great spider 
that the German fly was to be im-prisoned! The 
most powerful of England's allies is the Lie. It is 
an ally which she has used in every country in the 
world, especially in the United States. 

We are told that every implement of British di- 
plomacy, "from boy scouts to Grub-street poets," has 
been mobilised — clean or dirty implements, it makes 
no matter. Pulpits, university chairs, the Bench, 
the Press, the society dame, retired ministers, mem- 
bers of the Royal Family have all been utilised to 
announce the German danger, and they have done 
their work well. 

And therefore Germans will rigidly adhere to 
their iron determination to conquer. "We must con- 
quer!" exclaims the excited Vossische. "We will 
conquer! We can conquer ! The enemy is England ! 
The prize Is Freedom ! We shall do all in our power 
to free ourselves. The world must not become a 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 31 

British prison! This is the thunder-word and will 
of the German people." 

"That Man on his Island" 

Frau Emmy von Egidy, one of Germiany's best- 
known novelists, contributes a remarkable article to 
the Hamburg N achrichten on "Sacred Hate." She 
warmly advocates the cultivation of what she calls 
"glowing animosity" as a first duty of patriots. In- 
dividually they may follow the extreme Christian 
doctrine of loving their personal enemies, but when 
it comes to the enemies of the State there must be 
no half-feelings, nothing palliative must be urged in 
defence of the enemy. But do not perpetually talk 
about your hatred, implores the writer; do not pub- 
lish it to the four winds of heaven. Hate with the 
whole intensity of your heart, but be quiet about it! 

Frau von Egidy asks what have Germans to do 
with "that man on his island" ? Between him and 
Germans there is a great gulf fixed. Germans do 
not wish any longer to study his characteristics, his 
good and his bad qualities; there is no need to call 
down curses on his head. He has told Germans 
that his will is to destroy them, he has announced his 
intention to employ the most shameful means to 
bring this about. Germans do not wish to know 
more. Their answer is Hatred — ^that must suffice. 

Every fresh foul blow of England can only inten- 
sify this Hate to white heat, can only deepen this 
detestation. And what Germans mean by "depth 
of hate" will yet astonish the world. The world 
has yet much to learn of what Germany is capable 
when the will of her people is saturated with de- 
structive energy. This feeling will stand behind her 



32 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

soldiers, it will help them to bear their intolerable 
privations, it will give their bullets the right direc- 
tion, it will sharpen their swords. 

If German hate is to be sacred, says this furious 
lady, it must be kept sacred. 

Divine Approval of Hate 

The Deutsche Tageszeitung publishes a remark- 
able article on the "Sacredness of Hate." 

The German idea, says this journal, is not op- 
posed to the conception of "Gott Strafe England!" 
This expletive expresses in simple form the universal 
feeling of German soldiers at the front, who know 
that England is the arch-enemy, the most dangerous 
and persistent of enemies, the enemy who has in- 
duced France and Russia to make common cause 
with her. 

How is it possible not to hate an enemy so un- 
scrupulous and cunning and treacherous? Perhaps 
Germans will try again to love England when they 
have her under their feet, but in the meanwhile they 
will hate her, "and hate her with their entire souls, 
and out of the deepest depths of their nature." 

Be it observed, says the Tageszeitung, that this 
hate is a source of immense power. If German sol- 
diers and sailors were robbed of it, if the hope of 
final retribution on the British were taken away from 
them, their enthusiasm would wane. Is it possible 
to believe, asks the writer of the article, that the 
present high pitch of endeavour would be continued 
without this enthusiasm of hate? 

More remarkable still is the following passage: 
"Strong hatred, not petty malice, has God for its 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 33 

source. In order really to love the good, we must 
burn with anger against the bad. Love is the out- 
come of hate; grows out of it. If you choke hate 
you wither love. And God desires that we both love 
and hate." 

"It is clear that God has risen again in us Ger- 
mans, in order that the powers of darkness may be 
exorcised and conquered. But to carry out this mis- 
sion we must have the weapon of hate in order to 
make tense our sinews and strengthen our arm. 
He who loves his people must nourish hate. Take 
hate from us and you take the steel from our soul 
and the iron from our blood." This rhodomontade 
is followed by a blasphemous chant in which Christ 
on the Cross is made to approve of German hate 
because it springs from German love for the Father- 
land." 

In Praise and Defence of War 

One of the greatest of Prussian historians, 
Treitschke, a man who has profoundly influenced 
the soul of the nation and aided in forming the most 
unlovely parts of its character, has said that "War 
is the only medicine of a sick nation; it produces 
heroism and is glorious." For nearly three years 
variations of this theme have been dinned into the 
ears of the German people. Pedagogues, profes- 
sors, theologians, journalists have instilled it into 
the minds of the young and impressionable. War is 
the great restorer, the great reviver, the stirrer up 
of stagnant pools of life, the scatterer of miasmas 
engendered by worldly-mindedness and wealth, the 
scourge of God for the enemies of the Fatherland. 



34 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 



War the Regenerator 

In the Kolnische Volkszeitung, the principal or- 
gan of the Clerical party, we have an extraordinary 
article on the "Kultur value" of the war. Accord- 
ing to this newspaper the war has become for Ger- 
many a great moral regenerator. It has placed be- 
fore the eyes of the nation the great principles of 
piety, patriotism, civil unity, sacrifice, the value of 
real things, the emptiness of vain trifles. It has 
brought about a return to German simplicity as an 
ideal of eternal value. 

The war, we are further told, has opened the eyes 
of Germans to certain signs of degeneracy in their 
manner of life, In their dress. In their amusements. 
In a word, the war is rapidly leading Germans back 
to their old piety and honour, to the love of one's 
neighbour. Germans have returned to the pristine 
virtues of the race, to that old fidelity and austere 
simplicity which Tacitus praised. 

The Volkszeitung asks If It is possible to believe 
that there are still frivolous German women at a 
time when German men, under incredible hardships, 
are defending with their swords the holy flame of 
their hearths. It asks If there are still men who 
threaten the honour and the life of others at a time 
when the blood of their fellows Is flowing in streams 
In defence of the Fatherland. The newspaper ar- 
rives at the conclusion that these categories of men 
and women have ceased to exist. 

In art and literature, we are told, there are 
abounding signs of a similar renaissance of the real 
and essential. We are assured that Germans at the 
present time find no pleasure in the Ignoble, the bad, 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 35 

the common; no more pleasure in all those doubtful 
tendencies and movements which sprang up in the 
old days of the decadence, like weeds in a rank gar- 
den. The nation now realises that it will require all 
its physical and moral powers if it is to attain to the 
heights to which victory is beckoning it. 

As further evidence of national improvement, the 
Volkszeitung tells us that frivolous pictures have 
vanished from shop windows. In bookshops the 
writings of the preachers of pleasure, the works of 
the hedonists and sensualists, have been relegated to 
the dustiest and most remote shelves. In the theatres 
decadent drama and dubious comedy have given 
place to the purer classical drama of Schiller. And 
the process of purification has even descended to the 
humblest cinema shows with their erotic pieces, their 
duels, and other reprehensible subjects. A different 
atmosphere, we are informed, now prevails, an at- 
mosphere more congenial to the growing seriousness 
of the nation. 

War the Purifier 

It is interesting to note the pains taken by nu- 
merous leading journals In Germany to point out 
the high moral advantages which flow to nations 
and individuals from war. That war is a national 
regenerator, that its practice elevates and purifies 
those engaged in it, seems to be the lesson which these 
journals wish to inculcate. 

The Hamburg Fremdenhlatt makes a selection of 
the "golden sayings" about war uttered by "great 
spirits," from which we take the following: 

"Eternal peace is a dream, and not even a beauti- 
ful dream,. War is an integral part of the order of 



36 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

the universe instituted by God. It develops the 
noblest attributes of man — courage, surrender to the 
common cause, self-sacrifice. Were there no war 
the world would dissolve in putrefaction, or sink 
into the grossest materialism." — Moltke. 

"Wars invigorate humanity, just as storm pre- 
serves the sea from putrescence." — Hegel. 

"The condemnation of war is not only absurd, it 
is immoral." — Treitschke. 

Although the Hamburg journal cites these pas- 
sages now, it must not be forgotten that they are fa- 
miliar to every German boy and girl in their earliest 
school years, that these children have grown up to 
regard war as a necessity in the healthful life of a 
nation, and the practice of arms as the^ noblest call- 
ing to which a citizen can devote himself. 

War, a Biological Necessity 

Dr. Fugmann, of the Leipzig University, has pub- 
lished a book entitled The Blessing of War. It is 
one of those numerous works which have appeared 
in Germany since the outbreak of hostilities dealing 
with war as a biological necessity and as the great 
"world cleanser." Its argument follows the usual 
lilies which are common to this class of German 
book. 

But a portion of Dr. Fugmann's picture of Ger- 
many before the war is worth quoting: "There was 
dissension on all sides. The people were engrossed 
in the pettiest interests of the day. The life led by 
the bulk of Germans was indescribable, even though 
serious men lifted up their voices against the iniquity 
of it all. Fidelity and faith had disappeared. A 
man's word had no value. Contracts were made 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY 37 

only to be broken. Business in general assumed a 
shape resembling a huge organised deception. The 
corruptions of life grew apace in town and country, 
and no prophet, no preacher of morals, no apostle 
of nature, no seer was in a position to stem the tide 
of degeneracy and decay. Every man who professed 
an ideal was ridiculed. Such was Germany before 
the war." It may be, continues the writer, that 
hundreds of thousands will be killed or ruined by 
this war, but even such a calamity is infinitely to be 
preferred to millions rapidly degenerating and grow- 
ing daily more rotten. God loved the German na- 
tion to such a degree, says Dr. Fugmann, that He 
sent this war to heal it of the gangrene which was 
eating into its vitals. 

The book concludes as follows : "This war comes 
from God, therefore it is a blessing. War is the 
father of all things, and for Germans it is the cause 
of an incomparable regeneration, an indescribable 
blessing for the great future before us." 

The World's Dislike 

It is characteristic of the German that he is per- 
petually discussing the question, Why are we dis- 
liked? Even In the pre-war days it was a question 
he was always asking, and never finding a satisfac- 
tory reply. 

The outbreak of war made the discussion more 
urgent. In every journal in the empire the subject 
was laboriously argued. The reply usually forth- 
coming was that human beings are naturally envious 
of those who have reached heights unattainable by 
the vulgar crowd. From envy to hate is only a step. 
German success, German prowess, German grandeur 



38 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

and might made Germans hated by the little-souled 
other nations. That is the whole secret. There 
were some writers who frankly admitted defects of 
character, who doubted whether Germans had yet 
attained to those heights of moral and social per- 
fection which entitled them to the universal admira- 
tion of mankind. It is a diverting subject, as the 
following quotations will show. 

Herr Rohrbach's View 

Foreign nations regarded Germans, said an emi- 
nent lecturer, as a nation of noisy barbarians, only 
partially developed. Herr Paul Rohrbach admits 
there is some truth in this, but tries to prove that the 
noise and the barbarism were necessary if the race 
is not to die of inanition, or become sickly by stag- 
nation. With all their faults, he says, Germans 
have a sohd kernel which foreigners do not recog- 
nise. It is this kernel which they are to develop 
when the war is over. And in addition, Germans, 
says Rohrbach, must accustom themselves to easier, 
more amiable, and smoother forms of social Inter- 
course with the rest of the world, and bestow more 
circumspection on the selection of those who are sent 
out into the world as the representatives of the Fath- 
erland. If this Is carefully attended to, Germany, 
predicted the speaker, will not only conquer in its 
business and economic relations, but will everywhere 
make moral conquests as well. 

The amusing thing about this lecture is that it 
was arranged by an ultra-patriotic committee eager 
to hear what splendid fellows they were. At its 
conclusion there were vigorous expressions of dis- 
sent, and one recalls from Holy Writ the story of 



GERMAN WAR PSYCHOLOGY [39 

another prophet who blessed what he was summoned 
to curse, and cursed what he should have blessed. 

The Neighbour's Envy 

In social life, says Dr. Gogon Fridell, a well- 
known publicist, we like people if they are unusually 
honourable or respectable in conduct; if they are 
modest and polite, if they are kindly and simple. But 
it is in exactly these qualities that the German is pre- 
eminent. One would naturally think that the mo- 
tives prompting our likes and dislikes in private life 
would be translated into international relationships. 
By no means. There is no country in the world 
where all the fine qualities just mentioned are more 
a national asset than in Germany. From the simplest 
workman to the most august authority, the marks of 
hearty benevolence and gentlemanly compliance are 
in clearest evidence. 

However paradoxical it may appear, it is just be- 
cause the German is so pre-eminent in the finest 
qualities of amiability that he is so profoundly dis- 
liked by other nations. It is not that he is disliked 
in spite of his nobler attributes, but because of them. 
"There is nothing more intolerable to your neigh- 
bour than your superiority." Goethe said so, and 
it must be true. 

• • • • • 

Dr. Fridell illustrates his argument thus: "What 
is it," he asks, "that the French, English, and Rus- 
sians demand from us in this war? Complete dis- 
armament, says the Frenchman; the destruction of 
all your great factories, says the Briton ; the destruc- 
tion of everything, says the Russian. That is to 
say, the Frenchman objects to our military superi- 



40 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

ority, the Englishman to our industry and commer- 
cial skill, the Russian to our possessions. It is the 
hatred of the ne'er-do-well for his able neighbour. 
The German Fact is the constant and abiding cause 
of French resentment. The Briton is without senti- 
ment ; for him it is enough that the German is a suc- 
cessful merchant. In the case of the Russian it is 
pure nihilism, the primitive hate of the original man 
for his neighbour with real estate." 

So long as the splendid qualities of the German 
are not the prevailing qualities comimon to the whole 
world, so long will the German be hated. Modesty, 
genuineness, and "enthusiastic essentiality" are the 
fundamental powers of the German race. You see 
these powers exemplified, says Herr Fridell, in the 
philologist, the labourer, the discoverer, the priest, 
the banker, the soldier. The souls of them all are 
filled with "enthusiastic essentiality." 



CHAPTER II 

PASTORS AND PROFESSORS: THE RELIG- 
ION OF GERMANS 

The Valley of Dry Bones — Huns and Christianity — Emi- 
nent Theologians: Apocalyptic — A Great Theological 
Light — ^A Truculent Pastor — Heaven in Allegory — 
The German Professor — Nothing to Apologise for— 
What is Humanity? — ^The Leader of the Monists — 
Harnack and the Princes. 

It is not the purpose of this chapter to enter Into 
the modes of divine worship in Germany or to dis- 
cuss the beliefs based on various confessions. Our 
sole object is to reflect prevailing religious sentiment 
as It appears In the only sources open to us. In the 
selections which follow, we only cite the views of 
men filling responsible and leading positions In the 
Churches to which they belong. We have rejected 
extravagant ebullitions of fanaticism where these are 
not backed by responsibility. 

Let us first of all confine ourselves to the utter- 
ances of Court chaplains^ — men, that Is to say, who 
have filled elevated positions at Court, and are sup- 
posed to know the Imperial mind on affairs of re- 
ligion. 

The Valley of Dry Bones 

The Kaiser's chief Court chaplain, Dr. Dryander, 
recently returned from the Russian frontier, where 

41 



42 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

he has been engaged on religious duties among the 
German troops. Preaching in the Berlin Cathedral 
for the first time after his return, he took as his text 
the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, in which the 
Hebrew prophet sees his marvellous vision of the 
valley of dry bones, and the transformation of the 
dry bones into an exceeding great army under the 
breath of the Spirit of God. 

Dr. Dryander referred to the taunts of Germany's 
enemies, to their mocking reproach that the religion 
of Germans is merely a phase of their patriotism, 
and contended that exactly the contrary was the fact, 
and that German patriotism was really a part of 
their religion. Said the Court preacher: "The 
power in our patriotism is our faith, our religion. 
And when the breath of the Spirit of God moved as 
with a rushing noise over the nation in those unfor- 
gettable days of August 19 14, the idea of God be- 
came God Himself, the unknown God became the 
known. This was the faith which our warriors 
took with them into the field and which has since 
animated all their actions." 

Huns and Christianity 

Pastor Heyn, in the Fossische Zeitung, is Indig- 
nant that certain utterances ascribed to German 
preachers in French and British newspapers should 
misrepresent these Christian teachers, and leave a 
false impression regarding what they really did say. 
There is space only for the well-known case of "Pas- 
tor Fritz Philippi of Berlin." 

Pastor Heyn triumphantly points out that there 
is no such pastor in Berlin, and that the gentleman 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 43 

in question milnisters at Wiesbaden. Further, his 
remarks were not made to his congregation, as stated 
In the British and French journals, but to soldiers 
in a field service at the front, and afterwards pub- 
lished in the Christliche Welt. The enemy Press 
quoted Pastor PhlllppI as saying: "The divine mis- 
sion of Germany is to crucify mankind. The duty, 
therefore, of the German soldier Is to hit without 
mercy. They must kill, burn, destroy. Every half 
measure must be disapproved; there is no mercy 
in war." 

What Pastor PhlllppI really did say is quoted by 
Pastor Heyn as follows: "Therefore, my men, 
standing in defence and arms, you are crucified hu- 
manity. You know for whom you are suffering. 
As In a dream you see the free German land lying 
In a golden harvest of peace. Beyond the war Is re- 
demption. Now, Sword ! Be a sword and strike 
hard. Fire! Be a fire and burn. Half measures 
are a crime. The less there Is of forbearance in 
war the more merciful Is war. It means rest for 
children and grandchildren. 

"Our great brother Jesus was not able to kindle 
His sacred fire on earth, like as the sun comes forth 
in the early morning rejoicing. He was the Cruci- 
fied. He wore the Crown of Thorns. He had to go 
through the fire of hate, of wickedness, of the war 
of all against the One. He had to prevail. We also 
must prevail. For this Is also this monstrous war — 
a crucifying of humanity. . . . We must prevail! 
We must allow ourselves to be slandered If we have 
become masters In the use of the means of terrific 
destruction by mines and bombs. Our enemies may 
take the responsibility that In this fearful war all 
the claims of humanity are being crucified." 



44 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Even Pastor Heyn recoils from a full justification 
of these atrocious sentences. He says: "These 
words of Pastor PhilippI fall and hit like hacked 
iron. It is fearful that a servant of the Gospel feels 
himself compelled to utter these things. But what 
if he must feel them? They are uttered out of the 
need, out of the anguish of the present time. I ask 
every Englishman, every Frenchman, Do you not 
feel that your sons and brothers in the field have the 
holy unholy duty imposed on them of wielding the 
sword with their last strength if thereby peace may 
come? If so, then spare us your hypocritical in- 
dignation if Germans feel and say the same." 

Pastor Heyn winds up his apologia by asking 
whether it is any use asking the enemy Churches to 
protest against this "vihfication" of German pas- 
tors. He wishes to know whether the command- 
ment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against 
thy neighbour," is still in force in the Churches of 
England and France. 

We are obliged to Pastor Heyn for his apologia, 
which confirms in every particular the original report 
of Herr Philippi's remarks. What we wish to know 
is, why this indignation? Pastor Heyn knows as 
well as we do that this Wiesbaden minister of the 
Gospel, and the others recently associated with him, 
are not by any means alone in their monstrous teach- 
ing, and that from all parts of Northern and Middle 
Germany we have had repeated instances, well au- 
thenticated, of the Hun in Religion. We ought, 
perhaps, to add that in Southern Germany and in 
Rhenish Prussia ministers of religion are more apt 
to remember that they are the servants of the Prince 
of Peace, and not the advocates of unbridled sav- 
agery. 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 45 

EMINENT THEOLOGIANS 

Apocalyptic 

Professor Adolf Delssmann, one of the most emi- 
nent theologians In Germany, has turned his atten- 
tion to the Apocalyptic visions of St. John, and in 
the marvellous chapters on the opening of the seals 
gains some prophetic insight which he turns into an 
article for the Berlin Lokal Anzeiger. 

First of all there is the Red Horse, "and he that 
sat thereon had power to take peace from the earth, 
that they should kill one another. And there was 
given unto him a great sword." The professor sees 
in this terrific figure the sign and symbol of the war 
which is devastating so many fair lands. 

He next turns attention to the opening of the 
third seal and to the figure sitting on a Black Horse 
with a pair of balances In his hand. He quotes, "I 
heard a voice say: A measure of wheat for a penny, 
and three measures of barley for a penny, and see 
thou hurt not the oil and the wine." In Dr. Delss- 
mann's opinion this means the end of the war, and 
the justice and righteousness which will ensue. 
There is also allusion to the recent confiscation of 
bread cereals. 

But the expositor of the Apocalypse is chiefly con- 
cerned with the White Horse of the vision, "for he 
that sat on the horse had a bow, and a crown was 
given unto him, and he went forth conquering and 
to conquer." This is Germany, and the professor, 
fascinated by his discovery, calls "Vorwarts" to his 
compatriots, for theirs will be the crown and the 
victory. 



46 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

But he says nothing about the Pale Horse, "and 
his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell fol- 
lowed with him." Nor does he quote Shelley's lines: 

"Next came Anarchy; he rode 
On a white horse splashed with blood; 
He was pale even to the lips 
Like Death in the Apocalypse. 
And he wore a kingly crown; 
In his hand a sceptre shone; 
On his brow this mark I saw: 
*I am God, and King, and Law !' " 

A Great Theological Light 

Professor Relnhold Seeberg, of the University of 
Berlin, next to Professor von Harnack Germany's 
greatest theological hght, and well known in foreign 
countries, has written a remarkable article on "War 
and Brotherly Love" in the Illustrirte Zeitung. Dr. 
Seeberg, we understand, is the leading professor of 
New Testament exegesis, and his interpretations 
must be accepted as the authoritative view of modern 
German Christianity. 

War, he says, is, in Germany, everywhere recog- 
nised as "a renewer of idealism in our hearts, and as 
that which pours iron into the blood of men." Had 
he claimed this for some vivifying religion, for some 
new evangel of humanity, we might have listened to 
his attempts to substantiate the claim, but he claims 
this for war. He has dug out a remark of Luther's : 
"War is a work of love"; and he argues: "If the 
highest law and rule of morals is love, and If war 
Is moral — and of this there can be no doubt — ^It fol- 
lows that war must also be a work of love." A 
schoolboy could point out the fallacy of this foolish 
syllogism. 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 47 

Seeberg says, further, that the German nation has 
been attacked. Its share of the goods of the world 
which it has won is to be taken from it, and its free 
development is to be retarded. To this fearful rob- 
bery of an entire nation come the maltreatments and 
brutalities of the enemy. The men of the people 
have risen to defend their possessions. What is this 
but love? But this perhaps is not brotherly loVe in 
its widest sense, it is not the love spoken of in the 
famous passage wherein we are told not to hate, but 
to love our enemies. The Founder of Christianity 
looked for a proof of the genuineness of our love 
in our readiness to love an enemy. But, argues the 
famous Berlin exegete, we are to remember that war 
is not a work of hate. We are, of course, to do the 
very worst we can think of to our enemy, to render 
him in every way in our power incapable of action, 
but we are not necessarily hating him in doing so. 

He proceeds: "War is a tremendous struggle 
between nations, in which one nation or group of 
nations fights for the freedom of development, for 
its share of the goods of the world, or for influence 
on the destinies of mankind. In such a struggle 
physical, intellectual, moral, and economic forces 
are employed, and their employment is quite con- 
sistent with brotherly love towards those against 
whom they are employed. For example, continues 
the professor, if a certain nation attempts something 
beyond its power, if it permits envy, revenge, and 
thirst for fame to overmiaster it, it is not an im- 
moral act to fall on this nation and beat it to the 
ground and to show it in the stern lessons of war 
that its envy, revenge, arrogance avail it naught. 
To give this lesson is an eminent work of love." 



48 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

It may be argued, says Seeberg, that killing and 
mutilating is not a work of love. In itself perhaps 
not, but It must be remembered that the result of 
such a war as that just mentioned has been to bring 
an arrogant and envious nation to its senses, and to 
reduce the sum total of greed, envy, and malice in 
millions of the men who have been vanquished. As 
a matter of fact, adds the professor, it may even 
happen that the vanquished will draw more benefit 
from the war than the conqueror. It is this which 
makes war so clearly a work of brotherly Christian 
love. 

Professor Seeberg believes that when the war is 
over his countrymen will be most anxious to love 
their brethren who have been their foes. But this 
brotherly love of theirs is twin sister to wisdom, not 
to folly, and if the defeated brethren show no desire 
for German love it will not be pressed on them. 
German friendship and love must be asked for. It 
would be the height of folly, thinks the professor, 
to run about and offer it. 

This is the last word and counsel of this great Ger- 
man doctor of Christianity, the man at whose feet 
a generation of theologians has sat. 

A Truculent Pastor 

One of the best-known Leipzig divines is Pastor 
Lober, of Fremdiswald. In an article headed "Chris- 
tianity and War" he comes to the conclusion that 
there is no contrariety between the service of God 
and the service of war. Every one, he says, serves 
God who makes the blood of the enemy flow, and it 
is because he is thus serving God that he can reckon 
on God's blessing. The admonition of the New 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 49 

Testament to return good for evil cannot be applied 
in war. In war evil must be met by evil, and wher- 
ever possible by greater and increased evil. War 
demands Old Testament severity, not the mildness 
of the new dispensation. He is to be praised and 
envied who sees his enemies perish. 

Pastor Leber's concluding words are as follows : 
"It is only another side of love for one's country, 
the desire for thorough revenge on the malicious 
enemy. We beflag our houses, we ring our bells, 
and sing "Nun danket alle Gott" when countless 
multitudes of Russians meet a terrible death in the 
Masurian swamps, or when 2,000 seamen are 
plunged to the bottom of the ocean by our subma- 
rines. And such expressions of gratitude and joy 
are genuinely German and genuinely Christian." 

Heaven in Allegory 

The latest number of the Berliner Illustrirte Zei- 
tung contains an allegorical picture entitled "The 
Heavenly Host," which is a curiosity in its way. A 
detachment of German infantry is shown storming 
a position, some of the men with their eyes directed 
towards the enemy, others with their gaze towards 
heaven. In the midst of whirling clouds we see the 
dim and shadowy figures of "the Heavenly Host." 
They are all naked. Their leader is a ferocious 
nude figure with hair streaming behind him, and 
waving a short sword. He is followed by naked 
figures on horses madly careering through the void. 
The riders are also armed with short swords, the 
horses are without bridle and saddle, for all the 
world like the Valkyrie riders of Wagner's opera. 

The idea of the artist, a certain Herr Bischoff- 



so SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Culm, is that the celestial detachment in the clouds 
is composed of the spirits of departed German war- 
riors, and that they are lending their invaluable su- 
pernatural aid to the battling infantry below on the 
earth. The German artist's conception of heaven 
is not nearly as graceful a picture as the allied Turk's 
idea of Paradise. 

The German Professor 

The German professor, a most conspicuous war 
figure, is a category by himself. The outbreak of 
hostilities brought him into immediate prominence. 
He developed at once the most extreme chauvinism. 
He adopted as his own, popular shibboleths and 
popular passions, and ran amok among the enlight- 
ened classes of the world as the hot defender of 
Prussianism and of all that the Prussian State stands 
for. The professorial utterance has its own shape, 
as we shall see. It is not particularly didactic, or 
logical, or educational; it is dogmatic, intolerant, 
spiritually shortsighted. In any sketch of the life 
and character of the German people as influenced by 
the war the professor's share in uttering the national 
sentiment cannot be ignored. We naturally ask our- 
selves, What do the intellectuals, the spiritual elite 
of the nation, say? What is their point of view? 
And when we read their lucubrations we marvel 
that they all say pretty much the same thing. 

The following letter from Privy Councillor Pro- 
fessor Lasson of the University of Berlin to a friend 
in Holland is a fine flight of bombastic incoherence. 
We ask ourselves, if a professor of philosophy is 
driven to write this stuff, in what a state of mind 
must the average German be? 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 51 



Nothing to Apologise for 

Dear Sir and Friend, — For months I have not 
written to a single foreigner. Foreigner means ene- 
my, dum probetur contrarium. No one can remain 
neutral to the German State and people. Either 
you consider It as the most perfect creation that 
history has produced up to now, or you acquiesce in 
its destruction, nay, in its extermination. 

The man who is not a German knows nothing of 
Germany. Two million volunteers have enlisted, 
amongst whom are two of my grandsons — one a 
student of theology twenty-one years old, the other 
a sixth-form boy of eighteen — eight nephews and 
great-nephews, and more than twenty cousins. We 
are morally and intellectually superior, beyond all 
comparison, as is our organisation and our institu- 
tions. 

Wilhelm II, delicae generis humant, had In his 
possession a power with which he was in a position 
to smash everything; yet he has always protected 
peace, justice, and honour. The greater his suc- 
cesses, the more devout and humble he has become. 
His Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, by far the most 
prominent of living men, knows no other motives 
than truth, fidelity, justice. Our army is the epi- 
tome of German intelligence and moral excellence; 
its perfect discipline is well known. 

Now there is no German house, from the Kaiser's 
to the labourer's, that is free from mourning. We 
must sacrifice our dearest, our best, our most noble 
ones to fight with Russian beasts, English merce- 
naries, Belgian fanatics! 

The French are the only ones at all comparable 



5a SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

with us. There shall be no peace until the three 
mischief plotters who would not let Europe rest are 
completely subjugated. We want peace and safety 
for ourselves in order to be able to guarantee it for 
others. We wish to carry on untiringly our work of 
kultur. We have nothing to apologise for. We 
are no bully State. We threaten no one so long as 
we are not attacked. We do good deeds to all 
people. 

What is Humanity? 

In an article headed "Humanity," Professor Os- 
kar Bie, in the Hamburg Fremdenblatt, defends the 
accepted German theory that every great war modi- 
fies our conceptions of this virtue, and practically 
casts overboard the theories of the past "in favour 
of the new theories which result from altered tac- 
tics and a more highly developed technique in muni- 
tions." 

In the professor's opinion, an opinion supported 
by editorial comment, there is no such thing as prin- 
ciples of humanity. Humanity is not like an inex- 
orable law of nature. It is the outcome of circum- 
stances, and varies from age to age, from country 
to country. 

There was no more humanity in the age of ar- 
rows, swords, and axes than in the age of the ma- 
chine gun. In the former case you stood up against 
your foe and hacked at him, now you shoot him a 
mile away. There is no more humanity in dropping 
a bomb filled with poisonous gas from an airship than 
in blowing somewhat similar gas into your enemies' 
faces. The only difference is that the latter process 
is a novelty, and has not yet been adopted univer- 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 53 

sally. Humanity in war, says the professor, does 
not and cannot exist, and to talk about Hague Con- 
ferences and accepted rules of humane .conduct in 
the face of the new emergencies of this war is about 
as ineffective, and makes about as much Impression 
on the German nation, as a schoolboy's essay. 

And so with the submarine. It is neither more 
nor less than a cannon of a sort, and destroys enemy 
property as ruthlessly and blindly as a siege gun on 
land levelled on an enemy city. There is no inhu- 
manity about it. For the present Germany's emer- 
gencies justify its use in every conceivable way. Af- 
ter the war is over the nations, if they like, may sit 
in council about It, and formulate rules which will 
be binding until the next emergency arises. New 
technique, says Professor Bie, gives new powers to 
the army using it. The army is a fool that relin- 
quishes its advantage. 

The professor's conclusion is : Technique creates 
might, might creates right, and right creates human- 
ity. All these conceptions are changing, and Ger- 
mans are not going to discuss them in the middle of 
a war. Germans will not be made fools of; they 
decline to be sentimental. 

The Leader of the Monists 

Ernst Haeckel, the octogenarian zoologist and 
pioneer of Monism, has just finished a book with the 
title Eternity: Thoughts about Life and Death, Re- 
ligion, and the Doctrine of Evolution. It is a series 
of more or less connected thoughts which he thinks 
might be regarded as foundation stones for a phil- 
osophy of the war. 

Professor Haeckel has nothing comforting to say. 



54 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

His philosophy is of the drabbest and most cheerless 
sort. The bulk of his book is devoted to prove that 
the answers to the above questions can only be had 
in religion or in philosophy, and that in religion the 
answer is wholly unsatisfactory and untenable. The 
war, he says, has reduced to an absurdity the doc- 
trines of providence and predestination. In view of 
the deaths of such masses of people, in view of the 
fact that daily thousands die in open battle, in 
trenches, in air machines, submarines, hospitals, and 
prison camps, all of them carried away by blind 
chance, and others owing their escape to the same 
blind chance, the illusion that the destinies of men are 
In the care of an Omnipotent Intelligence with care- 
fully arranged plans is an idea which cannot be en- 
tertained for a moment. 

The famous professor lays equally pitiless hands 
on the behef in an All-loving Father, either as it ap- 
pears in the philosophy of dualism, or as it is ex- 
pounded in systems of Christian ethics. This war, 
he says, proves the absurdity of the Christian prin- 
ciple of loving one's neighbour and the futility of 
pacifism. Pacifism and Christian ethics have both 
been declared bankrupt. The Horrible which we 
see daily, what is it but a mockery of "Love thy 
neighbour as thyself" ? 

Haeckel, however, is not without a message of 
comfort. He finds it in science, or, as he expresses 
it, "in the monistic religion of reason." It is but a 
sorry substitute he offers for what he calls the "pre- 
vailing superstitions." It is not even original. He 
goes back 250 years to his old idol Spinoza, and 
preaches the beauty and satisfying nature of Resig- 
nation. This great teacher in Germany has nothing 
better to recommend to his suffering compatriots 



PASTORS AND PROFESSORS 55 

than brave "devotion to the Unavoidable," "the 
knowledge and recognition of the eternity and inde- 
structibility of the Cosmos and of the courses of 
Nature in which the individual unceasingly appears 
and disappears in order to make a place for new 
forms and new modes of unending Substance." 

"What an inexhaustible treasure-house of most 
noble enjoyment do these countless wonders of an 
eternal process offer to the thinking man of Kultur!" 
With this sentence Haeckel concludes a book which 
will bring but scant consolation to the many who 
regard him as their teacher and prophet. 

Harnack and the Princes 

Germany's arch-professor, Adolf von Harnack, 
eminent historian and theologian, intimate of the 
Kaiser and president of a score of academies and 
learned societies, has been lecturing in Munich on 
"The Kultur-war in the World-war." Royal princes 
and the aristocracy of the Bavarian capital thronged 
to hear the great man; the intellectual aristocracy 
was also present. It was a most successful lecture, 
and nearly the entire non-Sociahst Press extols it as 
a marvellous exposition of German ideals, and as a 
deadly criticism of the Kultur of Germany's enemies. 
The Munchener Post, the organ of Bavarian So- 
cialism,, finds, however, nothing to admire in the ut- 
terances of the great ecclesiastical historian, and 
much that deserves the gravest censure. It will be 
interesting to follow the criticisms of the Post. They 
reveal an attitude of mind with which the extremists 
will be, sooner or later, in collision. 

Harnack began his lecture by lengthy allusions to 
the lies and libels of Germany's enemies. He cited 



S6 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Oxford professors and other intellectuals in proof 
of his statement that the cultured classes of Great 
Britain were criminally blind to the eminent cultural 
services of Germany. But the Post unkindly reminds 
Herr Harnack that German professors like Lasson 
and Sombart, Haeckel, Eucken, and scores of others, 
including the great Church historian himself, have 
united in declaring in words of unmeasured ferocity 
that only Germany is entitled to call herself a Kultur- 
State, and have claimed that with the exception of 
Germany and her allies, no other nations have the 
right to maintain that they cherish lofty ideals. 

Professor Harnack exclaims, "Thank God, our 
Kultur is different from that of the others, both in 
its essence and in its manifestations," and draws in 
consequence the rebuke from the Post that he is 
strongly reminiscent of a certain Pharisee who 
thanked God that he was so superior to the publi- 
can. 

The famous scholar tackled his theme by begin- 
ning with Russia. Russia has neither history nor 
Kultur. "Harnack's idea," says the Post, "is that 
Russians are hordes of barbarians and their country 
a desert. This is stupidity against which the gods 
struggle In vain. The man seems to Ignore the ex- 
istence of Pushkin and Lermonteff, Gogol, Tolstoi, 
Dostoyevski, Gorki, and a host of others. With a 
gesture Herr Harnack contemptuously waves Rus- 
sia aside." "They may be a merciful and charitable 
people, but what of that," says the German divine, 
"with a supercilious look at the princes and aristo- 
crats In front of him." 



CHAPTER III 
CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS 

War Pedagogy — Voices of Children — Future Careers. 

Much space is devoted In the German Press to the 
discussion of "War Pedagogy." The discussion Is 
conducted, as Germans discuss all such subjects, with 
Intense acrimony, the disputants abusing one another 
with a choice vocabulary of vituperation. A case In 
point was the publication of a pamphlet by Profes- 
sor Foerster, an eminent pedagoglst, who took as 
his main thesis that children must be brought up 
to regard not only the interests of their own coun- 
try, but also with a readiness to recognise the rights 
and Interests of their neighbours. 

War Pedagogy 

Foerster complained that since the war began 
German children have not been sufficiently Impressed 
with this side of their duty, and that a strong mili- 
tary bias, in the narrowest nationalist sense, has 
been given to all their Instruction on the war. "Na- 
tions," said Foerster, "can neither Isolate themselves 
nor others, and children must be taught that with 
all their patriotism they are destined to Intercourse 
with the peoples of other countries, and that their 
happiness, the happiness of their country, and the 
happiness of neighbouring countries depend on the 

57 



58 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

loftiness_of their views on this subject, and the stand- 
ard they set themselves as men in carrying out these 
views." 

In his pamphlet Foerster dechned to dwell on the 
fact that the Christian religion, which is the relig- 
ion officially professed by Germany, is a religion of 
love. The emphasising of this fact is more the duty 
of the Church. But he could not refrain from say- 
ing that the teaching of a high ethic Is an important 
part of pedagogics, and that no responsible guide 
to youth should neglect any opportunity of impress- 
ing the ductile minds of children with the hateful- 
ness of hate, and with the beauty of treating all 
men, of whatever nation, with tact, good feeling, and 
fellowship. 

One would have thought that sentiments so excel- 
lent and self-evident, especially in a pedagogist, 
would have met with instant recognition. But it was 
not so. One authority after another rose to declare 
that these doctrines taught to German children at a 
time when the nation was in arms in defence of its 
most sacred values were little short of treason, that 
if pressed to their logical conclusion they must ex- 
ercise an enervating effect both on teachers and 
taught, and that for German children there was only 
one point of view worth considering — ^the German 
point of view. "Steel and not sugar-plums, muscles 
of cord, cool heads, and German, German, Ger- 
man," was the summing up of the whole duty of 
pedagogues towards children by one of Foerster's 
antagonists. 

Then appeared Dr. Erich Meyer, a well-known 
educational authority, who wrote a lengthy article 
in the Tdgliche Rundschau to prove that Foerster 
was a weak-kneed and namby-pamby humbug. Herr 

■ / 



CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS 59 

Meyer declares that when Foerster wrote: "The 
souls of the young will suffer damage should they 
ever forget that in this war brother is fighting against 
brother," he said something which, if taught to a 
German boy, would change his German soul to 
something like the soul of a sponge. 

"It is our business," says Meyer, "to push aside 
all these lofty ideals, to teach the youth the stern 
realities of this war, to teach them that at last, after 
a long existence as an endurer, an existence of un- 
worthy slackness, our people have ceased to dream." 

Herr Erich Meyer will not tolerate the men who 
can say a word on behalf of Latin civilisation as 
compared with German Kultur. Latin civilisation 
is deteriorating, and if its ideals are taught to Ger- 
man youths and girls the result will be catastrophic. 
"Away with such nebulous and sickly sentiment! 
Let it be rooted out from the soul of our people !" 
Meyer scornfully asks : "What good are these great 
ideals to our soldiers? They require cold blood in 
them. And the more they are free of this senti- 
ment the more beautiful, the more German are their 
actions." 

"The school must indeed learn that war is a 
frightful and mad terror which one might gladly 
banish from the world for all time; but with every 
desire to make the school a training ground for 
peace, it must before all else be made a preparatory 
school for war, and for the development of that 
power which will enable us to give effective blows 
of our hammer." . . . "All of us now know what 
this war is teaching us — that the war is a battle of 
life and death between two ideals of humanity, the 
German and the un-German ideal. There can be 
no compensatory balancings. With arms or with- 



6o SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

out arms the battle must be fought to a finish, until 
one or other of the ideals has disappeared." 

Voices of Children 

An Interesting article in the Berliner Tagehlatt 
gives the answers to a series of war questions put to 
forty-two boys and thirty-eight girls in Bavarian 
Grammar Schools, the children being between twelve 
and fourteen years of age, and selected for their 
general intelligence. 

The first question Is: What is the war in your 
eyes? The replies, as a rule, are very proper. The 
war Is a struggle for honour and for the existence of 
our land. Or it is a visitation of God in order to 
bring mankind back to Him. One girl writes, "The 
war is an enchanting murder!" 

Question Number 2 : What pleases you most in 
the war? Here also the answers are, as a rule, 
quite correct: The numerous victories, the bravery 
and endurance of the soldiers, the deeds of the 
submarines, Hindenburg. Some candid children 
thought the numerous holidays and the shortening 
of school hours the most pleasing event of the war. 
One girl, probably she who spoke of the enchanting 
murder, wrote, "I am best pleased when I see our 
soldiers leave for the front decorated with flowers, 
going to pour out their blood." 

Question 3 : What is the least pleasing thing 
about the war? Answer: When the soldiers suffer 
in the trenches, or when the wounded are detrained 
or moved. But the majority replied: The action 
of England in stirring the nations against us. The 
Tagehlatt states that over and over again the chil- 
dren express their boundless hatred of England. 



CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS 6i 

"If you had to go to the front, what would you 
do?" is the fourth question. The answer from near- 
ly all is that they would fight with all their power 
and courage, or they would go to help Hindenburg, 
or they would earn an Iron Cross, or they would 
have a wild adventure as patrols, or they would en- 
gage themselves as spies. Twenty of the girls want- 
ed a weapon of some kind to kill Englishmen; only 
four desired positions as nurses. 

The fifth question was : Should the enemy Invade 
Germany, what would you do? They would all 
fight to the last moment. One girl would wait for 
her bullet, but another, a real Bavarian, would hide 
in the Thomas Brewery, somewhere in a secluded 
corner. 

Question 6 runs: Why are we at war? Most of 
the replies state that Germany was compelled to 
defend herself. England had plotted against Ger- 
many in order that British trade would be better 
after the war. One boy wrote: "We are at war 
because the English wished to plunder us and fill 
their own gold sacks." 

The penultimate question is: Who will be vic- 
torious, and why? Germany, of course, because its 
soldiers and sailors are braver and better than those 
of other countries, because Germany has Hinden- 
burg, because German munitions are better. Nine 
girls and four boys believe that Germany will prob- 
ably be victorious. And one gentle little girl thought 
the Germans would be victorious because so many 
of them carry a rosary or a prayer-book. 

The final question is: Who is our worst enemy, 
and why? The reply is obvious. The questioner 
knew the answer he would get. The English are 
Germany's worst enemies, because they began the 



62 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

war, and caused It, because they are the greatest 
liars and deceivers, because they would starve Ger- 
many, and because they waited until May in order 
that they could employ more of their wild men 
against Germany. 

Future Careers 

The Frankfurter Zeitung furnishes us with an Im- 
portant and deeply interesting study of young Ger- 
many in the shape of answers to questions set to a 
class of boys between the ages of twelve and four- 
teen, all of whom were in their last year at school. 
We purpose, however, to deal with the answers to 
only one question: What will be my future career? 

The first answer is as follows: "As my father 
has fallen on the field of battle, and as my mother is 
sickly, I must see that I quickly earn money so that 
my mother need not go to work." The next boy 
writes: "I want to be a farmer, for the farmer in 
war time does not suffer want. He can eat as much 
as he wishes, and earns a lot of money." Another 
lad: *T shall hire myself to a farmer, where I can 
always get enough to eat and receive In addition 
6s. a week." 

Most of the boys desire to learn a handicraft. 
One precocious youngster explains this by saying 
that after the war "handicrafts will be like a golden 
floor." Another: "We must work hard at learn- 
ing, for we must fill up the gaps made by the war." 
"If we boys are industrious and have learnt some- 
thing good we shall be very prosperous after the 
war." "I wish to become a shoemaker," says one 
young philosopher and poet, "because I can sit on 
my stool, and as I draw the wax ends through the 



CHILDREN AND SCHOOLS 63 

soles of the boots I can sing and whistle. Perhaps 
I shall even become a poet like Hans Sachs, of whom 
it has been written that he was poet and cobbler at 
the same time." 

The writer of the Frankfurter article rejoices that 
these young prigs have a perfectly clear notion of 
the demands which their trades will make on them. 
"When I bring my mother money for the first time 
she will be delighted. That will be the most beau- 
tiful day in my life when I lay the money on the 
table." Another good boy writes: "The half of 
my money I shall give to my mother, the other half 
I shall put in the savings bank." 

We are told it is remarkable that the war with 
its terrors has neither frightened the boys nor made 
them more shy. Quite the contrary. Most of them 
regretted their youth. If they were permitted, 
every one of them — those brave German boys — 
would spring to their arms, "even though I should 
sacrifice my young life in battle." "When I am 
fifteen, and should we then be still at war, I shall 
volunteer for the fortress machine-gun detachments. 
Here I shall distinguish myself by bravery in order 
to obtain the Iron Cross, and be promoted to the 
rank of sergeant." All wish to volunteer, and all 
have already made up their minds regarding the 
branch of the Service to which they will attach 
themselves. "I shall join the infantry," says one 
egoist, "because I shall only have myself to look 
after." Another would join the Navy, "because it is 
so fine, and, besides, the future of my fatherland lies 
on the water." "When I have served twelve years 
in the army I shall get a nice job at the Post Office 
or on the railway." 



64 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

A number of the boys spun the thread of their 
lives into quite other directions. "I shall not marry, 
because I do not wish to get angry with a wife." 
Where has this young cynic of twelve learned this 
philosophy of life? "I shall not marry," says an- 
other of the good boys, "because I shall take my 
parents to live with me and support them till they 
die." "I shall not marry, as I would have to care 
for my wife and children, and that is too expen- 
sive." "As soon as I leave the army I shall marry 
and close my life happily." "When I am twenty- 
seven I shall marry a wife and live with her in peace 
and happiness. She will present me with two chil- 
dren. They will be smiths, and will look after me 
later. When I am seventy I wish to die, as I shall 
have lived long enough." 



CHAPTER IV 

BERLIN AND HAMBURG 

Street Scenes — ^Thinking Deeply — ^^sthetic Teas — Big Or- 
ders: No Workmen. 

BERLIN 

The war has enormously contributed to make Berlin 
the real capital of the German Empire. In the old 
ante-war days each of the Federal States, In view 
of the encroachments of Prussia, made a point of 
emphasising the Importance of Its own capital as the 
centre of Its life, and gave to Berlin only what was 
Berhn's due — recognition of Its position as the centre 
of Imperial administration, the residence of the 
Imperial family, and the clearing house for the for- 
eign transactions of the Empire, diplomatic and eco- 
nomic. 

But Berlin before the war could hardly be re- 
garded as occupying the same position In the life of 
the people as Is occupied by London, Paris, or Vi- 
enna in the life of Britishers, Frenchmen, or Aus- 
trlans. It was badly tainted with the blemishes of 
the parvenu. Its population were regarded as vul- 
gar, blatant, ostentatious, assertive, and altogether 
lacking In the observance of those finer amenities 
of life which defy description, but are none the less 
a part of the imponderables — of those spiritual 
agents and influences met with In ripe and ancierjt 

65 



66 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

communities. Germans from the south and west 
felt themselves out of sympathy with the struggling, 
striving grossness of the Berliner, and it is safe to 
say that in popular holiday resorts and other gath- 
ering places the least popular guest was the man and 
woman from "Athens on the Spree," as the Berliner, 
with more than his usual defects of humour, calls 
his city. 

To a large extent the war has changed all this. 
The centralisation of military affairs in Berlin, its 
importance as the point where all the threads meet 
and are kept in hand, its dominating position as the 
home of the Reichstag and of those administrative 
departments for controlling the Empire's food sup- 
plies and national auxiliary labour have all contrib- 
uted to enhance the position of the capital in the es- 
timation of the people, and to make it in very truth 
the centre of the German nation at war. What its 
position may be after the war as the centre of na- 
tional life or as a centre of social influence it is im- 
possible to forecast, but at the present time it fitly 
represents Germany, and what Berlin says to-day 
the rest of the country will say to-morrow. 

That is the reason why in these pages so much 
attention is bestowed on this city — its life, Its 
thought, its social outlook, and those aspects of Its 
citizens which best illustrate their attitude to the 
war and its tasks. 

Our first study of the capital is taken from For- 
warts, the principal organ of the Majority Social 
Democratic party. 



BERLIN AND HAMBURG 67 



Street Scenes 

The Socialist organ draws attention to the mili- 
tary life of the streets. Large as Berlin's garrison 
was before the war, soldiers were not then notice- 
able in great numbers. Now the majority of males 
in the streets are in uniform. 

They are mostly wounded or men on furlough. 
Among them you see any number of boyish faces, 
any number of grey heads. The father walks with 
his son, both in uniform, both wounded. The 
wounded usually move about in groups with Red 
Cross sisters, the weaker generally leaning on a 
sister. 

Business is toned with the colours of war. From 
cinemas to chocolate shops — it is all War, War, 
War. Forwdrts draws attention to the number of 
shops which have been closed owing to the failure 
of their tenants to make both ends meet. It seems 
that in most cases the stocks remain Inside un- 
touched, as the creditors can do nothing with them. 
Certain trades (Forwdrti does not specify them all) 
have suffered more severely than others. One busi- 
ness, however, is mentioned — the Wirtschaft, the 
place which combines the public-house and restau- 
rant. These establishments in vast numbers have 
closed their doors, the bars are cobwebbed, the dusty 
glasses stand in the corners with dead flies in them. 
The landlords have all gone to the war, their guests 
too. No longer the great tankards of foaming beer. 
The loud "Prosits" have given place to a strange 
silence, dumb and deserted are the places of mirth, 
and great placards on the dirty windows announce 
that a restaurant is to let. 



68 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Vorwdrts also notices as a sign of the times the 
appearance of woman in numerous callings for which 
a year ago she was regarded as wholly unsuitable. 
What man in the German Empire a year ago could 
have imagined women tram or omnibus conductors, 
ticket collectors, letter-carriers, doorkeepers, lift at- 
tendants, scavengers? 

The Socialist newspaper points out that the war 
is bringing up problems of so difficult a character 
that no one ventures to offer any solution of them. 
The war has brought it home to Berliners, as noth- 
ing else has ever done, that change and decay are the 
phenomena of life most in evidence, and that the old 
inherited traditions are being swept aside. 

The vibrations of this awful drama of war, says 
Vorwdrts, will shake our daily life to its founda- 
tions. 

Thinking Deeply 

Oscar Blumenthal, the well-known writer of genial 
comedy, sends an interesting letter to the Neue Freie 
Presse, giving his impressions of life in Berlin. In 
many external ways, he says, it is the old Berlin, 
but a moment's attention shows that the war has 
eaten deep into the daily life of the people, and that 
innumerable citizens feel, and show that they feel, 
that their daily routine "has been torn up by the 
roots." 

One sees that the citizens are thinking deeply, and 
that they regard their lives now, and until the final 
decision comes, as merely provisional existences. 
Berlin, says Blumenthal, is as a palace with a laugh- 
ing fagade, within which are chambers of a most 
serious character. 



BERLIN AND HAMBURG 69 

At night there are crowds as usual, and brilliantly 
lighted streets. Cafes and restaurants are well 
filled, and in various cabarets five-o'clock tea is dis- 
pensed. Lyrical poets wander about from hall to 
hall to declaim their hymns of hate and their battle 
scenes, and in the theatres we have patriotic plays. 

But the war, nevertheless, has written its bloody 
autograph on every paving-stone of Berlin. One 
cannot engage In the shortest walk without meeting 
swarms of wounded ojfficers and men, with their 
serious, war-bitten faces. In some you see the con- 
valescent, others limp along on their sticks and 
crutches, others with pale faces, shadowed by mel- 
ancholy, tell of their superhuman exertions. 

Everywhere in Berlin, continues Blumenthal, im- 
patient people are met who desire to see the pace 
of the war accelerated. On their breakfast tables 
every morning they demand hot rolls and hot bulle- 
tins of victory, and they will not understand that the 
German and Austrian Grand General Staffs are not 
conducting this war for the gallery, or for the grati- 
fication of nervous people. 

Esthetic Teas 

Writing In the JVoche, Baroness van Bunsen dis- 
courses on German sociability during the war and 
after it. This lady, one of the best-known leaders 
of Berlin society, is sorry to confess that before the 
war there was much that was "inharmonious and 
unsympathetic In Berlin conviviality." The social 
functions, accompanied by eating, which used to be 
arranged at luncheon and dinner-time have now 
altogether ceased "for reasons which are evident to 



70 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

every one." The Baroness means that as there is 
no food there can be no feeding. 

She is delighted that those gross and material con- 
vivialities have given way to something more refined. 
Berlin society now meets between four and six and 
indulges in an aesthetic tea or coffee. It isn't really 
tea, nor is it really coffee, and there is no cream, 
very little milk, and hardly a lump of sugar. There 
are "war cakes," which are tendered to you by a 
maid or an elderly servant in livery, but of meat not 
a scrap. It is all very aesthetic, and conversation 
reaches degrees of brilliancy unheard of in the old 
carnivorous days. 

The evening between nine and eleven is the time 
for really elegant parties. They assemble after their 
frugal meals at home. They don't come for food — 
that would never do, as there is none for them, says 
the Baroness. But there are cold drinks and warm 
drinks and a little cake, and as for the conversation, 
it Is more briUiant than in the afternoon. What the 
Baroness cannot stand is the snobbery still preva- 
lent, every class pretending to be richer and better 
than they are — small officials, officers, landowners, 
all pretending to be millionaires, and doing their 
pretension shabbily. 

HAMBURG 

The great Hanseatic city, its people and Its Press, 
deserve separate treatment. It is in the centre of 
so many German ambitions, the cradle of so many 
dreams, the sacred place where so many enthusiasts 
have seen glorious visions of empire. Herr Ballin, 
the Jewish director of the Hamburg-America line, 
the greatest shipping concern in the world, has his 



BERLIN AND HAMBURG 71 

headquarters here, and inspires all classes of Ger- 
mans, from his Imperial master down to the lowliest 
workman, with hopes of a greater Germany beyond 
the seas, linked to the home country by vast and far- 
reaching merchant services which one day will drive 
British competition from all the Seven Seas. It is 
the home of the mighty colonial schemes which have 
dazzled the eyes of so many Germans — a great 
African Empire stretching from the Atlantic to the 
Indian Ocean, crossed and recrossed by efficient 
railways; a powerful base on the Moroccan coast to 
afford protection and add strength to a strong Af- 
rican squadron; an Australasian Empire Including 
New Guinea, the Samoan Islands, and a wide- 
spreading Pacific archipelago; settlements in the 
China seas and on Chinese rivers, with the inex- 
haustible Chinese markets behind them; and, last 
but not least, the glorious possibilities of a German 
South America. 

Hamburg is also the centre of the network of 
schemes summarised under the word "Bagdad." 
From Hamburg to Bagdad is the cry. The city Is 
full of organisations for the furtherance of Ger- 
many's ambitions in the Near and Middle East. As^ 
sociations for organising Balkan trade, for opening 
up the resources of Asia Minor, for the peaceful 
penetration of Persia, and for the utilisation of 
Mesopotamia, swarm in the city under royal and 
imperial patronage. Hamburg has developed a Pan- 
Germanic spirit more intense, more organised, more 
dangerous than any other city of the empire, and Its 
enormous wealth and resources have been freely ex- 
pended in the furtherance of its ambitions. 

It stands to reason that a city with such a mind 
Is In the very forefront of the anti-British crusade. 



72 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

From no other centre of population is the raucous 
voice of hate so loudly raised. It was in Hamburg 
where business firms first hit on the idea of stamping 
their paper with "Gott Strafe England." It was in 
Hamburg where the largest subscriptions were raised 
to commemorate dead commanders of submarines 
who had wrought the greatest havoc against Eng- 
land. It was in Hamburg that the Lusitania medal 
originated. It was a Hamburg pastor who declared 
from his pulpit that his people were doing God a 
service in hating the British and in taking every step 
possible to wipe so pestiferous a nation from the face 
of the earth which they polluted. 

The following extract from a Hamburg newspa- 
per deals with the situation as it has been affected 
by the war. It will be noted that, in spite of a bold 
front, deep depression reigns. 

Big Orders: No Workmen 

The Hamburger Fremdenhlatt has evidently read 
the descriptions in neutral and enemy newspapers of 
the woeful plight of Hamburg, Bremen, and other 
German harbours, and is determined to set things 
in a rosier light by the exercise of a little imagina- 
tion. We must not run away, we are told, with the 
idea that the grass is growing on the quays of Ham- 
burg, or that the broad expanses of the Elbe are 
desolations. It is shipbuilding which is probably 
one of the most active industries on the coast at the 
present time. When we reflect that the shadow of 
war is over the land it is simply amazing, says the 
Fremdenhlatt, what is being done in shipbuilding. 

It is true, we arc informed, that the yards are 
not turning out much, but the quantity of orders on 



BERLIN AND HAMBURG 73 

hand is most satisfactory. In other words, the 
yards have orders which they cannot execute. They 
are "looking forward, however, to a briUiant fu- 
ture." On the Stettin stocks the work is much more 
extensive than it was a year ago. Riiscke & Co. re- 
port that they have more orders than they will be 
able to execute for a long time, and the Flensburg 
Shipbuilding Company is in the same "satisfactory" 
condition. When the war is over, their report states, 
they will have more than enough to do. 

"The reports from the North Sea yards are quite 
as favourable as those from the Baltic." Blohm & 
Voss, in Hamburg, do not state the nature of the 
orders on which they are at work, but from their 
report we gather that they have orders to the value 
of £1,800,000. This fact rejoices the heart of the 
Fremdenhlatt. But whether they are doing any 
work on these orders, and whether the orders are 
from the Admiralty or from private sources is a 
matter wrapped in mystery. At the Weser works, 
in Bremen, "the prospects are favourable," and at 
the Seebeck yard at Geestemiinde we are told that 
the company begins the new year with "a large 
number of unfulfilled orders," and that for the pre- 
sent they have ample work for their hands. From 
another source we learn that this yard, which usually 
employed over 500 men, has now a staff of twenty- 
six, mainly engaged in keeping the works in some 
sort of repair. We can quite believe that they have 
ample occupation for their workmen. 



CHAPTER V 

COLONIES AND COLONIAL EMPIRE 

A German Colonial Empire — A Hamburg View — ^A 
Colonial Museum. 

A GERMAN COLONIAL EMPIRE 

When war broke out and immediate steps were 
taken by Great Britain to deprive Germany of her 
colonies, there was an affectation of much amuse- 
ment in the German Press. Innumerable writers set 
to work to point out that even though successful in 
their "filibustering expeditions," the British would 
before long recognise that the fate of these colonies 
would be finally decided on European battlefields; 
and the Allies were warned that not a hair of a Ger- 
man colonial head would be injured without com- 
plete compensation being demanded. 

As the war progressed, and colony after colony 
was occupied by the British, a number of writers 
were set to work to discuss the value of colonial pos- 
sessions in the German scheme of world-empire, and 
to assert that no peace could possibly be acceptable 
which did not provide for the restoration to Ger- 
many of her lost possessions. A side-issue was raised 
on the question whether a strong fleet was or was 
not a necessary accompaniment to colonial posses- 
sions. One batch of writers maintained that Ger- 
man colonies were acquired and developed when 
Germany was in command of very inferior naval 

74 



COLONIAL EMPIRE 75 

strength, and that other powers with vast colonies 
were able to govern them without any development 
of maritime power. On the other side it was argued 
that the present war showed how vulnerable that 
power was which neglected the development of her 
fleet, and that one of Germany's tasks after the war 
must be the building of such a navy as would render 
all future attacks on her colonies impossible. The 
subjoined extracts will illustrate the German colo- 
nial mind and attitude. 

A Hamburg View 

The Hamburger Fremdenhlatt devotes an entire 
page to "German Colonies" in connection with an 
address delivered in Hamburg by Dr. Solf, who is 
described as "Secretary of State for the Colonies." 
Dr. Solf lectured on the need of colonies to Ger- 
many, an excellent lecture in its way; and it is inter- 
esting to see the "Minister for the Colonies" em- 
ploying his enforced leisure in this harmless man- 
ner. 

The Fremdenhlatt, which illustrates the discourse 
with charming examples of Samoan landscape and a 
picture of the house where Herr Solf once lived as 
Governor of Samoa, tells us that among the most 
painful experiences of the war is the baseness and 
shortsightedness of Germany's enemies in employing 
coloured and half-civilised troops against the Fath- 
erland. 

Next to this in base meanness is the robbery of 
"our young colonies." That the enemy will occupy 
them is only too certain, but it will be robbery car- 
ried out with much loss of blood and with infinite 
treachery. 



76 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

"Among the attributes of the nation who are 
called Huns by the hypocritical English, and Boches 
by the degenerate French, is a remarkable idealism, 
incomprehensible to our enemies, which irradiates 
the entire German people, from the palace to the 
workshop. This is why we do not merely regard the 
German colonies as trading settlements, as places 
where money may be made, or where the native 
races may be sucked dry. This is the Briton's way 
with his foreign possessions. For the German his 
colonies are lands of fable, shimmering in the magic 
of marvellous sunlight, virgin territory exercising a 
potent attraction for our youth, and in which we 
have unfurled the banner of Kultur and humanity." 

The Fremdenhlatt concludes: "Among the great 
tasks which the war imposes on Germany is the win- 
ning back of our colonial possessions. Not only this, 
but their security for coming generations. Over the 
palms of Samoa, in the West African model colonies, 
in South-West Africa fertilised with our blood, in 
New Guinea, the most lovely tropical land on earth, 
the German flag will wave again." 

A Colonial Museum 

A remarkable movement is on foot, supported by 
the highest patronage, for establishing at Stuttgart 
a German Institute and Museum in the interests of 
overseas Germans. The King of Wurttemberg and 
the German Emperor are to be the patrons of the 
enterprise, and among those contributing the neces- 
sary funds are. In addition to the various Federal 
Governments, the principal shippers and heads of 
the largest exporting firms. Stuttgart is chosen as 



COLONIAL EMPIRE 77 

the seat of the new Institute and Museum, partly be- 
cause there Is an Invincible objection to the establish- 
ment of too many national undertakings In Berlin, 
and partly because Swablans have been so frequent- 
ly the pioneers of German enterprise abroad. 

In the numerous appeals for sympathy and funds 
issued by the founders we are able to gather a fairly 
accurate notion of what Is Intended. We hear that 
Germans living abroad are being subjected to ill- 
usage and contempt, and that they are living In con- 
ditions of the direst need. They are stretching out 
hands to Middle Europe, "they are blood of our 
blood," and their wounds must be healed and their 
needs supplied by their brethren at home. It Is 
pointed out that the Influence of these overseas 
Germans can be enormously Increased. No Euro- 
pean country has sons In such influential positions 
abroad as Germany. These men must be linked to 
the Fatherland with Indissoluble bonds. Too many 
of them, alas! have allowed the riches and snares 
of foreign influence to sap their Deutschtum. 

In addition to the 80,000,000 Germans at home, 
there are 20,000,000 abroad. How are these sons 
of the Empire to be strengthened In their love and 
allegiance to the Fatherland? This is the problem 
which Is being faced by the founders of the Institute 
and Museum. After the war there will be tremen- 
dous changes, and Germany may reasonably look 
forward in time to an almost immeasurable Increase 
of her overseas trade. No time must be lost In ar- 
ranging for the necessary supply of all available raw 
materials; equally urgent Is the question of an ex- 
tension of markets for finished manufactures. The 



78 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

cordial co-operation of the overseas German is ab- 
solutely necessary. 

These and similar thoughts occupy the founders 
of an institute which is to supply a knowledge of 
overseas Germans and their conditions of life to the 
nation at home, to further their interests at home 
and abroad, and to awaken an intelligent interest 
among the masses of the people in the concerns of 
those colonies of German men "who are our ad- 
vanced guard abroad." 

The Museum is not to be a cabinet of curiosities. 
Among all the various objects exhibited there is to 
be a living connection. Overseas Germany is to be 
shown in the midst of her surroundings and in her 
dealings with native peoples and races. In this way 
the Imperial German will grow familiar with coun- 
tries in which he is becoming vitally concerned. 

We have some interesting details regarding the 
nature of the collections in an article contributed b)?' 
Dr. Carl Uhlig to the Berliner Tagehlatt. They are 
to embrace the intellectual and material possessions 
of the overseas German, and, in addition, much that 
is important In the frame In which his life is set. The 
German settlement, trade, domestic life and its ar- 
rangements, clothing, utensils of all sorts, the pro- 
duce of the soil, arts and crafts, objects of industry, 
means of transport and communication and all that 
fitly illustrates or explains the scientific, artistic, re- 
ligious, and social institutions of the country are all 
to be exhibited. Each country where Germans are 
"standing at the outposts of our world-mission" will 
have its own special section. 

But this is not all. There will be an important 
department devoted to German shipping lines trad- 
ing with foreign countries where Germans are set- 



COLONIAL EMPIRE 79 

tied; another will Illustrate the German Press In 
those countries; and a third will be devoted to ex- 
hibits bearing on overseas German schools. Special 
attention will be given to displaying processes of 
manufacture from the raw material to the finished 
article of various commodities In which Germany Is 
largely Interested, and which are produced by Ger- 
mans. We hear that cocoa, coffee, cotton, and rub- 
ber are among these. Finally, there will be the In- 
stitute and Museum Library, which has been planned 
on a vast and very complete scale. Much shelf- 
room will be given to books on economic subjects, 
"but other subjects will not be neglected." It will 
be the aim of the founders to make the library a 
complete fountain of knowledge regarding those 
foreign countries "which come within the ambit of 
our economic and cultural world-mission." 

The concluding sentence of Dr. Uhlig's article is 
as follows: "Although the founding of the new 
Institute and Museum is pre-eminently a work of 
peace, it nevertheless belongs to those tasks which 
must be taken up to-day in preparation for the eco- 
nomic battles which must be fought after the war, 
and which will affect all classes of our people." 



CHAPTER VI 

ORIENTAL DOMINION 

Orient and World Trade — New Route to India — Bagdad 
the Centre — Bosphorus, Suez Canal, Egypt: Control 
of the Bosphorus — Relations with Turkey: Speechless 
with Admiration of the Turks — Kladderadatsch and the 
Turks — Kurds and Germans — To Revivify Arabia — 
To Revivify Persia. 

The establishment of dominion In the Near and 
Middle East has been, from the first, one of the 
chief aims of Germany. Long before the war the 
eyes of the Kaiser, his admirals and generals, his 
financial and Industrial magnates, had been turned 
to the Orient, and the Drang nach Osten, once a vi- 
sion and a dream, assumed the visible proportions 
of a definite scheme of policy. This Is not the place 
to follow the rapid progress made by Germany In 
the realisation of her dreams of oriental dominion. 
Our task here is confined to following the manifes- 
tations of this will for dominion as they were dis- 
played In the Press during the war. Much has hap- 
pened since 1898, when William II at Damascus 
made the famous speech In which he told the 300,- 
000,000 Mohammedans of the world that they 
could rely on him as their true friend. At the time 
the world was Inclined to view this utterance as mere 
rhodomontade. We have since learnt that It was 
nothing of the sort, and that It embodied a definite 
and far-reaching policy. It will be remembered that 

80 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 



in the following year, 1899, the Kaiser obtained the 
first concession of the Bagdad railway. 

In the selection of the following extracts from 
German newspapers and periodicals we have pur- 
sued the plan of presenting the various phases of the 
Great German ambition as it affected the different 
sections of the population. The extracts range over 
countries and seas from the Bosphorus to the Ganges. 
Turkey and Egypt, Asia Minor, Persia, Arabia, 
Syria and Palestine, Afghanistan and India have all 
floated before the dazzled eyes of those dreamers of 
Eastern Empire. A mirage? Certainly, but it is a 
mirage which spread before the gaze of a nation of 
seventy millions and inspired much of the indomit- 
able fortitude which they have shown In Durchhalten. 
The gradual fading away of those majestic visions 
of towers and minarets and palm groves over the 
arid deserts of the war will powerfully contribute to 
weary courage and show In sterner and clearer light 
the dread actualities which must be faced. 

Orient and World Trade 

In the Oriental Society, Professor Albrecht Wirth 
has been lecturing on "Orient and World Trade" 
to a distinguished audience. After a learned intro- 
duction, such as a German professor might be ex- 
pected to deliver, he pointed out that if Germany 
was to rise to an adequate conception of the bewilder- 
ing prospect before her, she must, in the very first 
place, arrange for an Increase of shipping to the 
East. From the Baltic and North Sea and the ports 
of the East there must be unbroken lines of ships 
moving backward and forward, and from the shores 
of these seas to the warm waters of the Persian Gulf 



82 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

and Bay of Bengal there must be the same unbroken 
communications on land. 

We are told by Professor Wirth that the exer- 
tions of the Allies to retain the possession of the 
Dardanelles and Constantinople in their hands will 
not delay the march of events. The pioneers are 
already on all roads that lead from the heart of 
Germany to Constantinople and the Indian Ocean. 
They are the pioneers of a new era of German world 
supremacy. 

From these sublimities Professor Wirth descended 
to discuss practical details. "What languages should 
our traders master in order the more speedily to win 
this economic campaign?" As far as the Professor 
himself was able to judge from personal experience, 
Hindustani was the best vernacular in Afghanistan 
and Baluchistan, and it Is a language easily acquired. 
It will be inadvisable to spend too much time on 
Persian or Armenian for countries east of Constanti- 
nople. Turkish is Indispensable for the German 
trader. There are 28,000,000 speaking this lan- 
guage. For work in the Balkans, Bulgarian is not 
so necessary as Greek. Greek, besides. Is used all 
over the ports of the Levant. Use might also be 
found for the Albanian languages, "when we begin 
to open up the mineral resources of that country." 

New Route to India 

In the Lokal Anzeiger appears a remarkable ar- 
ticle, under the heading, "The New Way to India," 
which is an excellent example of the dreams dreamed 
by the latest type of expansionist. 

Starting with the building of the Ludwig Canal, 
eighty years ago, which united the Danube with the 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 83 

Main, the writer traces the various ambitious designs 
which have engaged attention for connecting the 
North Sea with the Danube, and linking up the 
Rhine, Elbe, Oder, Moldau, Vistula, and Danube in 
one vast network of inland waterways. 

This scheme has been advanced a step farther, and 
in a few weeks, we are told, there will be held in 
Vienna a conference of the Bijrgermelster of all Ger- 
man, Austrian, and Hungarian Danube towns to con- 
sider the great conception of uniting the North Sea 
with the Black Sea by a system of waterways nav- 
igable for large vessels. This scheme, when rea- 
lised, will be the "New Way to India" — the third, 
the other two being "that discovered by Vasco di 
Gama, round the Cape, and the route opened at Suez 
in 1869, under the salutations of Turkish cannon." 
The year 1492, when America was discovered, and 
19 1 6, when the "colossal" Idea of the new road to 
India was born, "springing on the world full-pano- 
plied, like a new goddess of victory from the head 
of Pallas Athene, are dates which generations to 
come will regard as co-equal and epoch-making." 

This year of 191 6, it is pointed out. Is memorable 
also in that It sees the flight of the British from 
Mesopotamia, driven from their positions by Turk- 
ish and German guns, fighting there In the fear of 
death, defending the last wall round India. "Ideally 
considered," says the writer, "the way from the 
North Sea to the Persian Gulf is already free. This 
is the concatenation of events : the conquest of Ant- 
werp, the storming of Belgrade, Gallipoli, Kut-el- 
Amara. 

"All the Paris Conferences, all the Wilsons, all 
the thousands of new Dreadnoughts will not alter 
the situation. We already breathe lighter, notwith- 



84 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

standing the heavy sacrifices we have borne, and 
those yet to be endured. And when the wonderful 
network of waters Is finished the thousand-fold fruit 
of German industry will amply reward the blood- 
bedecked sowers of the seed — Westphalian coal and 
steel, Berlin machines and Vienna furniture. Bava- 
rian beer and leather, chemicals from Wurttemberg, 
books from Leipzig, sugar from Magdeburg. All 
these will speed down the Danube to the distant East 
without the eye of a single spying enemy being able 
even to count the ships. 

"The British strong places of Gibraltar, Malta, 
and Suez have lost their terrors for us. And a 
mighty navy of the Danube Powers will then cruise 
on the Black Sea. Perhaps, also, the sons of the sol- 
diers who now with blood and Iron are opening up 
this free road for Central Europe, will build the ca- 
nal which will unite the waters of the Euxine with 
those of the Euphrates. Then, If not earlier, there 
will be an end to the cruel and grinding power of 
England!" 

Bagdad the Centre 

The occupation of Bagdad by the British forces 
recalls the florid book by Dr. Karl Mehrmann, The 
Diplomatic War in the Near and Middle East, pub- 
lished some weeks ago, and generally regarded as 
the German classic on the history and politics of the 
Bagdad Railway. The concluding sentences of the 
final chapter are as follows: 

"The work and trouble connected with the realisa- 
tion of the railway have not been in vain. The 
principles of our understanding with Turkey will re- 
main permanently, and it is on this foundation that 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 85 

our political and economic future will be built. The 
future which stretches out before us, beyond the 
bounds of our circumscribed Central European posi- 
tion, will be a future which will make us the un- 
hindered participators of all advantages of all zones, 
from the temperate North to the tropical South. It 
is a future which will give us back our colonial pos- 
sessions in Central Africa, and enlarge them; a fu- 
ture which secures for us an uninterrupted sphere of 
interest from the North Sea through the Indian and 
Atlantic Oceans. 

"The work on the Bagdad Railway and our pre- 
dominant position on it will create a Central-Euro- 
pean-Near and Middle Eastern unity of military and 
transport interests, and result in the consolidation 
of a society of powerful states which will guaran- 
tee a new and assured equilibrium." 

Equally worth recalling at the present time are 
the words of Dr. Paul Rohrbach, another of the best 
known protagonists of the Hamburg-to-Bagdad pro- 
ject, a man who has probably done more than any 
other to maintain German ambitions in the Near 
and Middle East at white heat. In his book The 
War and German Politics we read: 

"What will happen should the British and Rus- 
sians drive in a wedge between us and our plans in 
the Orient? The independence of Turkey would be 
gone, the countries between the Straits and the Gulf, 
between Port Said and Ararat would be partitioned 
among our enemies. What would happen to us 
should we never again be able to exercise influence 
there? It is clear that this would be the end of our 
Welt-politik. It would mean our withdrawal from 
the company of world-nations." 

"The Bagdad line opens up for us the markets of 



86 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

hundreds of millions, it leads to the shores of the 
Indian and Pacific Oceans, The way thereto is ours 
in the future— through the Mediterranean, the Suez 
Canal, and the Gulf of Aden; through the Danube 
basin, the Balkans, Asia Minor, and Mesopotamia; 
through Armenia and Persia. The nation that is 
shut out from all this is shut out from, the shining 
front chambers of the world's palace, and is forced 
to take up its abode in the chilly, sunless rooms 
behind." 

BOSPHORUS, SUEZ CANAL, EGYPT 

Discussions on the Bosphorus, the Suez Canal, and 
Egypt cannot be avoided if Germany is to acquire 
an oriental dominion. England's influence is here 
supreme, but at all costs it must be overthrown, and 
Germany in her newly awakened might can do it. 

Control of the Bosphorus 

Dr. Paul Rohrbach is Germany's great popularlser 
of an overseas empire, with colonies and dominions 
exceeding in glory and power those of the detested 
rival. Lecturing lately in the Berlin Urania, Dr. 
Rohrbach said that Germans might dispute about 
the aims and objects of the war, but there was only 
one question to be considered: How is Germany 
to secure her place among the great nations of the 
world? 

But, said Herr Rohrbach, if we consider our allies 
we see at once how we can catch up the other nations. 
A "Union" between Germany, Austria-Hungary, 
the Balkan Pov/ers, and "The Orient" will equalise 
the existing preponderance of the enemy, and make 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 



Germany economically Independent. The Orient will 
supply Germany with all she needs, and in firm co- 
operation with the "Union," Germany would be able 
to conduct her next war under much more favourable 
circumstances. This, says Dr. Rohrbach, is the very 
kernel of the German position. 

Dr. Rohrbach pointed out that in the control of 
the Bosphorus Germany has the key of Russia's 
entire power, Russia's grain exports, the alpha and 
omega of her trading balance, pass through these 
straits, "In the same way," the control of the Suez 
Canal would deeply injure England were the 
"Union" in possession of this short cut to England's 
populous possessions in the East, "These are our 
war aims and objects, and it is this which is at the 
root of our enemies' objection to enter Into peace 
negotiations with us. It will be an exceedingly bitter 
pill for them to swallow. They know that their very 
existence as World Powers is threatened when we 
control the Bosphorus and the Suez Canal." 

With regard to England Dr, Rohrbach is inexora- 
ble — no pact, or treaty, or understanding with her. 
"We can only use England politically, economically, 
morally, when she is thoroughly beaten, and when 
she recognises that she is beaten. We must not start 
grumbling at high impending taxation. We are pay- 
ing these extra taxes to secure Germany's position 
as a World Power, and better is world dominion 
with high taxation than a lowly position with mild 
taxation." 

RELATIONS WITH TURKEY 

When Turkey joined the Central Powers the Otto- 
mans became "Blood Brothers," "Companions in 



88 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Arms," and "Comrades in Knightly Deeds." The 
German Press was, and continues to be, bespattered 
with their praise. Associations arose like mushrooms 
all over the Empire, having as their object the study 
of the Turkish language, literature, and art. "Turk- 
ish Evenings" were held at which "eminent Turkish 
poets and musicians" held forth. The "University 
of Constantinople" was endowed with German pro- 
fessors, and theologians of note were appointed to 
lecture on the excellences of the Koran, and its su- 
periority in some respects to the Christian Gospels. 
We subjoin some diverting examples of this courting 
of the Turks, of the making of common cause with 
the "Butchers of the Balkans," of the pride with 
which Germany goes arm in arm with the Turk 
through this catastrophic war. 

Speechless with Admiration 

With remarkable insistence the German Press 
prints lengthy articles about the Turks of a highly 
flattering character. For any one who has been 
accustomed to the unanimous verdict of the civilised 
world regarding this retrograde and impossible na- 
tion — a verdict to which Germany herself used to 
subscribe, it is amusing to read of the solid virtues 
of head and heart which have been discovered since 
the Sultan sent his troops to help the Kaiser. 

Count Reventlow, in the Deutsche Tageszeitung, 
Is simply speechless when he contemplates Turkish 
bravery, Turkish discipline, Turkish patriotism. The 
march to the Suez Canal, he says, was one of the 
finest of military achievements. Germans, he affirms, 
are proud to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Ot- 
toman forces for their mutual existence. Here is 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 89 

the last word of wisdom from this journalistic fire- 
eater: "The Osmans fight the same fight as the 
Germans for freedom and independence. It is this 
ideal which has drawn closer the bonds that bind 
them together. And those bonds will be still further 
strengthened by the mutual knowledge of Germans 
and Turks that they are militarily worthy of one 
another, and that the fame of the deeds ojf the one 
shine all the brighter in the light shed by the deeds 
of the other." 

We do not know which is the "one" and which 
the "other," but for once we can cordially endorse 
a sentence of the count's balderdash. 

"Kladderadatsch" and the Turks 

The intimate relations between Turkey and Ger- 
many find fitting expression in a special "Turkish 
number" of Kladderadatsch, a comic journal pub- 
lished in Berlin. It is bound in a scarlet cover dec- 
orated with a crescent, and the name of the paper is 
in ornamental Arabic characters. Inside the cover 
there is a dedication "To the Turks," which is trans- 
lated into Osmanli. Here and there a heavy witti- 
cism, generally at the expense of England, is done 
into Osmanli, but the gem of the thing is undoubt- 
edly the dedication. 

It is in verse, and the poet tells the Turks from 
the bottom of his German heart that they are a proud 
nation, standing like a rock and victoriously bring- 
ing to shame and disgrace the hypocrisy and rascality 
of their enemies. The Turks are "the guardians of 
honour," the keepers of a noble inheritance left them 
by their heroic fathers. They are the descendants 
of eagles who have at last arrived from the mist 



90 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

into sunshine, who are soaring upwards to a proud 
aim, namely, freedom, justice, truth to themselves, 
and freedom to the "people on the Nile." And thus, 
says the poet of the comic journal, we Germans 
stand at your side, brother's hand in brother's hand, 
until over a v/ide stretch injustice shall disappear, 
and until the morning red of a new dawn flames over 
the old earth. 

Kurds and Germans 

Professor von Luschan, of Berlin, director of the 
Anthropological and Ethnographical Museums, de- 
livered a lecture in the great hall of the Prussian 
Lower House on "The Turks," ImhofE Pasha in the 
chair. The elite of social and official Berlin were 
present. 

Herr von Luschan sought to establish the theory 
that although in the main Turks and Teutons were 
separate races, there were nevertheless strong racial 
affinities between them, which probably accounts for 
the growing sympathy and friendship characterising 
their intercourse. In a number of screen pictures 
the lecturei pointed out striking anthropological sim- 
ilarities between Turks and Germans, and contended 
that in the course of the ages two currents of migra- 
tion have been at work — one from northern Europe 
to the south-east, the other from the south-east to 
the north. It is not unusual among Turkish women, 
and quite usual among Kurds, to find individuals with 
the golden hair and deep blue eyes of North Ger- 
many. Herr von Luschan does not hesitate to say 
that the Kurds are a purely North European family, 
and that this is clear not only from their morphology. 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 91 

but also from the structure and vocabulary of their 
language. 

Herr von Luschan has repeatedly met with indi- 
viduals in the Orisons, in Wurttemberg, and else- 
where in South Germany, who bore unmistakable 
marks of a noble Turkish origin. There were some 
other remarkable scientific excursions by the profes- 
sor, one identifying the Armenians with the ancient 
Hittites, but for us the main attraction of his lecture 
is his theory that the Kurds and the North Germans 
are one race. It is probable that few people in this 
country will be disposed to quarrel with the theory 
— save on scientific grounds. 

To Revivify Arabia 

In the Vossische Zeitung appears a characteristic 
article, entitled "The Heart of Islam." It is charac- 
teristic in that it is one of an endless series ap- 
pearing in the German Press pointing out the policy 
which Germany will pursue after the war In countries 
which she has hitherto not controlled, but where she 
believes she has important Interests at stake. As a 
rule, these countries have hitherto been regarded as 
within the British sphere of influence, but countries 
in which Russian and French Influences are para- 
mount are also the subject of examination. The gen- 
eral trend of all these articles is to show that in 
Egypt and Syria, In Morocco, the Congo State and 
Algiers, in Persia, Baluchistan, Slam, and the Malay 
States a system of Indifferent government prevails 
which Is contrary to the best interests of the Inhabi- 
tants and that it is the world mission of Germany 
to remedy abuses and inaugurate a system of govern- 
ment and economics which will bring happiness to 



92 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 



hitherto down-trodden races and measureless wealth 
to enterprising Germans. 

The article on "The Heart of Islam" deals with 
Arabia. In the opinion of the writer the reform of 
Arabia might be left to Turkey — of course, under 
German direction. It will be the task, we are told, 
of the German-Turkish Allies to rebuild the desolate 
villages, to repair the choked harbours, and generally 
to pour fresh blood Into the country. 

The way to revive Arabia, says the article, is to 
prolong the Hedjas Railway to Mecca, and here and 
there, where needful, to build branch lines to the sea 
and into the Interior eastwards. It Is most Impor- 
tant to keep an eye on the harbours, which must be 
so enlarged as to enable German steamers to call at 
them. Railways, harbours, telephones, and tele- 
graphs will reduce Arabia to order. 

To Revivify Persia 

In various German newspapers It Is Interesting to 
notice the suggestions made for Increasing German 
spheres of Influence in countries hitherto closed to 
her financial and trading circles. Of course, these 
suggestions are made with the firm conviction that 
Germany's ultimate victory is assured. 

Persia seems to be much In the mind of nationalist 
writers. Recent events have shown them that the 
Shah's Government are to some extent under Turk- 
ish Influence; and as Turkey in the future will be a 
German sphere of Influence, so also will Persia. 

The Hamburg Nachrichten maintains that it is in 
Persia's best Interests to obtain financial backing 
from Germany. Railways must be built there, link- 
ing up the sea with the Asia Minor and Mesopota- 



ORIENTAL DOMINION 93 

mian systems. Then look at the natural products of 
Persia and the herds of cattle, the carpet Industry, 
dried fruits, etc. It will be Germany's mission to put 
these on the markets of the world. Above all else, 
there must be a Trans-Persian railway in German 
hands. Branch lines will shoot out in all directions 
from the trunk line, and the desert will blossom like 
a garden ! 

Then there are the mines, with their rich mineral 
stores. There are rubies and turquoises, and pearls 
in the Gulf, and other wonderful things beyond the 
dreams of avarice — ^all waiting for the "open se- 
same" of the kind German railway-man, supported 
by the Deutsche Bank. And it Is an easy cry from 
Persia to Afghanistan, and there again are more 
riches. Germany must get into communication with 
Kabul, and prepare in time for the day when the 
star of England will decline, and the road is open 
from Kabul through the Khyber to the swarming 
bazaars of India, 



CHAPTER VII 

THE NAVY AND MERCANTILE MARINE 

England's Trump Card — The Mercantile Marine: The 
Hanseatic Spirit. 

Shortly before his retirement, Grand Admiral von 
Tirpitz, in reply to an address from some of his 
admirers, used these words: "In its deeds, in its 
magnificent spirit of devotion and heroism, our navy 
has proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that it 
is worthy of the German people. The courage of the 
officers and men, their daring and skill, their absolute 
mastery of every situation in which they have been 
involved, will go down to history as one of the most 
brilliant pages of the annals of this war." 

The belief expressed by the Grand Admiral is the 
almost universal possession of the nation. The Ger- 
man fleet, it is believed, is supreme in the world. 
Fear of its prowess has driven the British navies, far 
superior though they are in strength, to take shelter 
in the remote fastnesses of northern coasts, whence 
they dare not emerge. We may read in the passages 
which follow the pride taken in the "achievements" 
of the Kaiser's navy and the belief in its invinci- 
bility. Much of the grandiloquent language employed 
is clearly forced, and it is reasonable to suppose that 
it Is employed in dispelling an uneasy belief among 
the people that the weapon which was supplied to 
the Empire at such enormous cost, and which was 

94 



MERCANTILE MARINE 95 

to break down the maritime supremacy of Britain, 
has fallen rather short of the expectations enter- 
tained of it. For a similar reason, doubtless, we 
have the numerous high-flown descriptions of the 
disgraceful raids on the English coasts. The fol- 
lowing extracts deserve careful study. 

England^s Trump Card 

Admiral Kalau vom Hofe is one of Germany's 
best-known naval writers. He is not on active serv- 
ice, but he is a great personal friend of the Grand 
Admiral, and only awaits a summons to lead the 
German fleet to glory. While waiting for this tardy 
summons he employs his leisure in writing articles 
for the Press, and one of these appeared in the 
Magdeburgische Zeitung, under the title "England's 
Trump Card." 

It was Mr. Asquith who gave the Admiral the 
idea. In a speech the late Prime Minister was in- 
discreet enough to venture some remarks "flattering 
to English vanity" on the invincibility of our fleet. 
The fleet is England's trump card, said Mr. Asquith, 
and the Admiral is eager to see it played. He won't 
believe for a moment that it is unconquerable. There 
is clear evidence to the contrary. Look at the num- 
ber of British ships lying at the bottom of the ocean, 
if you wish to know whether the fleet is invincible. 
Indeed, the Admiral thinks it highly probable that 
Admiral Jellicoe himself is doubtful about the pre- 
ponderating power of the force under his command. 
If he is not doubtful, says our Teutonic naval specia- 
list, why on earth does he hold so anxiously aloof? 
Why does he leave the defence of British coastal 
waters to mines, and nets, but more particularly to 



96 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

auxiliary cruisers torn from the commercial and fish- 
ery fleets, and numbering 2,300 craft? A pretty 
penny the British public will be obliged to pay for 
these auxiliaries to a fleet which is timidly hiding 
in the fastnesses of the northern seas ! Admiral 
Kalau vom Hofe thinks the naval administration of 
England deserves recognition for these crafty ar- 
rangements, but to give credit to the hiding English 
Armada — never ! 

Why are "those proud leviathans of the deep" 
away in their remote harbour? Because, says the 
Admiral, of the activities developed by a few Ger- 
man submarines, and because of the opportune and 
bold attacks of German cruisers in the North Sea. 
The Admiral complains that, although all this is true, 
the world still believes in the invincibility of the 
British fleet — a wholly nonsensical belief, a degrad- 
ing belief. 

It is the duty of every German, therefore, and 
especially of every German seaman, to combat the 
"mendacities" of English Ministers and writers re- 
garding the invulnerability of their navy, and its al- 
leged marvellous operations. It is in the interest of 
Germany, and certainly in the interest of neutrals, 
to knock this lie on the head for all time. To say 
that the British navy dominates the sea is a fable. 
It dominates only the trade routes, for the simple 
reason that Germany, for well-known and definite 
reasons, has not thought fit to defend these routes. 
Germany, says the Admiral, could not afford to make 
its weak fleet still weaker by taking vessels away 
from its main region of defence in the North Sea. 
But this prudent decision, the Admiral is careful to 
explain, was not forced on Germany by the heroic 
deeds of the British Armada (he takes pleasure in 



MERCANTILE MARINE 97 

this foreign word), but is purely owing to the nu- 
merical superiority of the combined British, French, 
and Japanese navies, as well as for other good rea- 
sons. Solvuntur risu tabulae. 

The German navy, continues the Admiral, is in a 
position to fetter the English Armada on the dis- 
tant northern point of Scotland and hinder it taking 
any action either against the coasts of Germany or 
against neutrals. Nearer to Germany it dare not 
come. It dare not leave its refuge even to defend 
the life interests and prestige of England in the Med- 
iterranean. There it must employ French and Ital- 
ian ships — ships, with few exceptions, of an inferior 
character. Let us suppose, says this egregious sea- 
man, that the ships of the French navy are no longer 
available — for it is not impossible that the French 
Ally may come to see that its particular object in 
this war is unattainable, and that it has bled quite 
enough in the interests of England — the impotence 
of the British fleet will be at once revealed. 

The probability is at hand that England, under 
the pressure of events in the Balkans, will be com- 
pelled to liberate her fleet from its northern fast- 
nesses to fight the German fleet at Heligoland for 
the freedom of her passage to the Mediterranean. 

Why does this proud British fleet avoid the bat- 
tle? The Admiral has his answer ready. Because 
it is in terror lest German artillery and torpedoes 
should lame it too badly, and because the leaders of 
British policy do not wish to see themselves robbed 
of their best instrument of power. That is why they 
do not wish to play out their strongest trump card. 

In reply to Herr Asquith the Admiral points out 
that the British "Armada" has till now done noth- 
ing. That is has locked up German oversea trade 



98' SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

without serious fighting is merely the consequence of 
the unfavourable geographical position of German 
harbours, and of the limited German coastline on 
the North Sea. Nor is it true to say that the Eng- 
lish fleet has swept the seas of the German mer- 
cantile marine. The German trading ships were 
warned in time, and were therefore able to seek the 
shelter of neutral harbours, where they still remain. 
They were not swept off the sea — they went of their 
own accord! 

And if German submarines recently have not been 
so active on the English coast as formerly, British 
ministers are not to suppose that this is to be ascribed 
to the activity of the British fleet. There are other 
reasons. "This war was not necessary if the Ger- 
man fleet is only to be conquered on paper and by 
sonorous speech. Therefore, out with your trump I" 

THE MERCANTILE MARINE 

The Berliner Tagehlatt publishes the following ar- 
ticle "The Hanseatic Spirit," interesting as a fine 
specimen of Teutonic bounce and brag. It displays 
the workings of the mind of German shippers, their 
ambitions, and the schemes which they ultimately 
hope to realise. 

The Hanseatic Spirit 

The writer laments that in a few days after the 
declaration of war the German mercantile flag dis- 
appeared from the sea, and that deep and painful 
silence descended on the towns and harbours of the 
North Sea. Hamburg and Bremen shippers at first 
took no steps to meet the ntw situation. They 



MERCANTILE MARINE 99 

believed that the war would be a short one, and that 
after "a passage of arms" with England intimate 
commercial relations with that country would be re- 
sumed on much the same lines as before the war. 

The silence and inactivity were not, therefore, the 
result of crippled powers, but of optimism. But the 
war extended, and the Hanseatic merchants saw that 
they could not sit down with idle hands until the 
war was over. They resolved on a "Durchbruch" ; 
they resolved on making themselves strong for the 
future. 

And now for months, we are told, the men on the 
North Sea have been persistently working and wait- 
ing, not for "the Day," but for "the Future." Much 
has happened lately to witness to the fact that the 
work has been crowned with success. , Ballin, of the 
Hamburg-America line, and Heinecken, of the North 
German Lloyd, have declared that their building op- 
erations have known no cessation, and that their 
fleets at the conclusion of the war will resume their 
operations with perhaps a still higher tonnage than 
they possessed when war broke out. 

The same thing, we are told, applies to all the 
other great lines. The Hansa: line, the Hamburg- 
South America Company, the Deutsche-Australische 
line, the Kosmos and Levant lines have all announced 
that they are building new ships, or that their new 
ships have already been built. Even smaller con- 
cerns, engaged in the Baltic trade, have been able to 
lay down a large number of new vessels. The vast 
majority of these new ships will be freight-carriers. 

It is absurd to think, says the writer, that there 
will be any diminution of German tonnage. Besides, 
the post-war ships will be better and more modern 
than the ships of the ante-war period, and certainly 



loo SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

better than the fleets of England. It is not only 
that the percentage of new German ships will be 
higher than in England, where tonnage has sadly 
deteriorated owing to the stress of war work and the 
ravages of submarines, and where the large yards 
have been fully occupied with Admiralty orders, but 
in the war period German ships have been resting, 
have been repaired and modernised, and can spring 
at once into action. 

The one trouble which the writer of this article 
foresees lies on the financial side of the question. 
The Germans have plenty of technique, but no 
money. And while English and neutral shipping 
companies have been piling up reserves out of their 
swollen profits the German companies have been con- 
suming their reserves. The one comfort of the writ- 
er lies in the hope that the German Government will 
come to the rescue with liberal and adequate sub- 
sidies. 

No, not his one comfort. There Is one comfort 
more — ^the fact that a German submarine merchant- 
man has taken a cargo of dyestuffs to America, and 
has brought back a cargo of rubber. It would be 
wrong, he says, to over-estimate the importance of 
this blockade-breaker in supplying the wants of Ger- 
many, even though many of its sister ships are al- 
ready completed, but neither must its importance be 
under-estimated. It will certainly weaken the vigour 
of the British blockade, and "its moral and legal 
importance" is enormous. 

Perspectives of unimagined grandeur stretch out 
before the writer. He revels in the thought of the 
development of the new submarine. "A submarine 



MERCANTILE MARINE loi 

mercantile fleet of 500,000 tons would be able to 
render every attempt at a blockade illusory, and be 
able to supply Germany with all the raw material 
she requires for her manufactures." 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE KAISER'S MAJESTY 

In a French Church — Near Lodz — At Church in Vilna — 
Near Verdun — Soldier and Saint. 

There Is a story told of the Kaiser that on one oc- 
casion when viewing the scene of a battle on the East- 
ern front, where the carnage was more than usually 
frightful, his eyes filled with tears and he exclaimed 
to the surrounding officers, "My conscience Is clear 
In the sight of God and of history. I did not wish 
this war." 

But If there Is one thing more certain than an- 
other it Is that history will hold the Kaiser responsi- 
ble for Armageddon, and that It was the ambition 
of the House of Hohenzollern which directly plunged 
the world Into the welter of war from which it will 
take a century to recover. 

It Is difficult to arrive at any definite conclusion 
on the question whether the Kaiser's popularity has 
increased or diminished during the war. Light on 
this subject does not come from German sources. 
He has undoubtedly exercised severe self-restraint. 
His orations have been comparatively few and sel- 
dom very outrageous, and he has certainly not Inter- 
fered by Imposing on his generals the Imperial no- 
tions of strategy. He has assiduously visited hospi- 
tals, distributed Iron Crosses, and attended sermons 
and prayer-meetings at churches on the main fronts. 



THE KAISER^S MAJESTY 103 

He has cultivated, moreover, many of the amenities, 
and legion Is the number of letters he has caused 
to be sent to mourning widows and mothers, and the 
number of babies whose godfather he has become. 
But whether these acts have really Increased his pop- 
ularity Is doubtful. They do not touch with pallia- 
tives any of the open grievances which the nation has 
against him. Criticism of him Is, of course, silent, 
an expression of blame is impossible ; but Indications 
are, nevertheless, not lacking that his seat In the af- 
fections of his people has not been strengthened, and 
that he is regarded as the representative of a sys- 
tem which has brought disaster on the country, and 
made Germany a byword among the nations. 

We allow the extracts which follow to speak for 
<-bemselves. For the most part they describe the 
Kaiser's frequent visits to his troops. They are 
marked, as every utterance about the man is marked, 
with much hyperbole and exaggeration, with the 
sycophancy which we must expect from the German 
Schmock. 

Our first extract describes the Kaiser's appearance 
at church in a French village near Longwy. 

In a French Church 

It was an Improvised church, but preparations had 
been made for the Emperor's presence. The walls 
were decorated with lances. One thousand men took 
up position on one side, an equal number on the 
other. In the front seats were the generals and the 
Kaiser's suite. An arm-chair in the centre was for 
the War Lord. 

He appeared in his field-grey uniform, with a 
scarlet and gold embroidered collar. Over his uni- 



104 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

form he wore a long grey mantle. He looked grave, 
exceedingly grave, and much older than the writer 
of the sketch imagined him. His features were so 
motionless, his eyes so set and stem that he looked 
as though chiselled in stone. 

He rose from his seat at the prayers and hymns, 
and in the singing took an active part. The hymns 
were apparently all familiar to him, as he seldom 
looked at his hymn-book. At the conclusion of the 
service the choir of singers and trumpeters sang the 
famous chorale, "Wir treten zum Beten." At first 
it was not rendered with the necessary fire and verve, 
and, this displeasing the Kaiser, he marked time 
vigorously, and as the choir followed his beat their 
music grew louder and more spirited, until, we are 
told, it thrilled all who heard it. 

When all was over and the Benediction pro- 
nounced the Kaiser shook hands with the pastor and 
thanked him for an impressive service. 

Near Lodz 

Next we hear of His Majesty at church near Lodz, 
the great manufacturing centre In Russian Poland. 

In the afternoon there was a religious service, the 
preacher taking as his text, "The horse is prepared 
against the day of battle, but safety is in the Lord." 
The sermon was not heard by the reporter, as a 
strong, icy wind blew from the north. The soldiers 
sang "Wir treten zum Beten vor Gott, den Gerech- 
ten," and the Kaiser spoke to his army. But again 
the words were lost in the sough of the Arctic wind 
over the Polish steppe. 

The Emperor then reviewed his officers, and they 
greeted him with cries of "Ave, Caesar!" But the 



THE KAISER^S MAJESTY 105 

reporter tells us that they did not greet him as gladia- 
tors, but as the hope of the nation in its great need. 
Speaking of William II's appearance, the reporter 
at first thought that the Kaiser had aged terribly, 
but on closer inspection he discovered it was a grey 
cloth which he wore round his head that gave the 
appearance of age. Indeed he was surprised at the 
Emperor's elasticity. Furrows there were on his 
face, graven deeply by the experiences of the long 
months of war, and there was a sternness and gloom 
about his eyes which was new, and a bitterness in 
his speech and voice which was absent In the old 
days. 

At Church in Vilna 

In the Vossische Zeitung we have a visit paid by 
the Kaiser to Vilna, where he met Hindenburg and 
where the Field-Marshal and his master went to 
church. 

The two clergymen, both of them old men, are 
outside watching his Majesty's coming. He ap- 
proaches, wrapped in a grey cape, with a hood, and 
under his helmet a grey head-protector. He shakes 
hands with the clergy, chats with them a while, and 
offers to follow them into the church. But the pastors 
know their duty, and follow the supreme War Lord 
to the altar. 

Prince Oscar attends his father, and finds the 
places for him in the hymn-book. The Kaiser sings 
the first verse. Hindenburg is close at hand. We 
read about his serene face. The Chiefs of the Ma- 
rine and General Staff are also there — Falkenhayn 
and Holtzendorff, Ludendorff and Eichhorn. The 
writer declares that had he an entire paint-box and 



io6 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

twenty yards of canvas at his disposal he could not 
do justice to his impressions. We believe him. 

The sermon was of the usual character — the sort 
of stuff a Prussian parson would preach to a war 
lord like the Kaiser, to a war lord who has also 
preached sermons. We are told that during its de- 
livery the imperial gaze was fastened unmovingly 
on the preacher, his features showing traces of the 
"sharpest thought." There was another hymn, and 
suddenly the sun broke out from the clouds. It is 
always breaking out from the clouds when the Kaiser 
is about. The Kaiser again spoke to the clergymen, 
beckoning them towards him as though he wished 
to say something cordial. 

We are then told that his Majesty, accompanied 
by his brilliant suite, went to the castle and distri- 
buted Iron Crosses of the first and second class. The 
writer saw the Kaiser as he was engaged in this oc- 
cupation, and got the impression of a "great friend- 
liness of heart which one seldom sees on the stern 
face." He recalls how a hundred years ago Na- 
poleon came to Vilna, and contrasts that scene of 
long ago with the present brilliant picture. 

Near Verdun 

A number of sketches deal with the Kaiser visit- 
ing soldiers in hospital. In the following we have 
described the Emperor's fatherly ways with the 
men, followed by a description of a visit to the bat- 
tlefields of Verdun. The characteristic report does 
not bear curtailment. 

According to the Tdgliche Rundschau, His Majes- 
ty had been to church near Verdun, and he then vis- 
ited this particular locality in order to see "his 



THE KAISER^S MAJESTY 107 

wounded warriors." He entered the courtyard, filled 
with men slightly wounded. 

"Morning, boys!" 

"Morning, your Majesty!" 

"And then rapid questions and answers. At first 
the men were a bit timid, but the Kaiser's adroit 
camaraderie and jolliness soon put every one at his 
ease, and they soon felt as though they were talking 
to a popular captain. You should have seen th^ 
men whom he spoke to — the unconscious convulsion 
in their battle-scarred visages, the deep breathing. 
Sometimes it was only a word or two about their 
homes. To one man the Kaiser said, 'Ah, yes, I 
know your place. Was there on manoeuvres. Beau- 
tiful place; you might willingly let your bones be 
smashed with shot for a home like that. Fancy, If 
we had let the Russians into it !' " 

But it was not exactly what the Kaiser said which 
we are asked to admire ; it was his genial and cordial 
laugh, his consoling and inspiring humour. It Is 
this which stiffens the boys' necks, which brings radi- 
ance to their eyes. It is this which makes them say, 
"I have been In his neighbourhood, I have seen him 
face to face, the man for whom I have battled and 
bled, and for whom hundreds of thousands have 
already died without hearing the Kaiser's thanks 
from his own Imperial lips." 

The Kaiser then entered the hospital where the 
seriously wounded lay. There was a board at the 
head of each bed, with particulars of the case. Those 
who had won the Iron Cross had their ribbon pinned 
on the board. Here the same jolly atmosphere, only 
slightly damped as the men were very weak. It Is 
astonishing, the jollity caused everywhere by the 
Kaiser's coming. From bed to bed he went, and on 



io8 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

each bed the War Lord laid a twig of laurel and a 
picture-postcard of himself, which he took from his 
aide-de-camp. The Schmock of the Tdgliche Rund- 
schau tells us that sometimes the "August Visitor" 
took from a parcel the most treasured of all war 
decorations, the Iron Cross and its ribbon, and pre- 
sented it to the suffering men. "Ah," says Schmock, 
"how our souls' eyes see the joy of the homes, when 
the letters come, written with trembling hands, which 
tell that the Kaiser has spoken to the writer, and 
has laid an Iron Cross and a sprig of laurel on 
his bed!" "That laurel sprig and Cross will occupy 
the place of honour on the wall, and go down to the 
children's children. What proud blessedness for 
their owners!" 

"Ye enervated and enfeebled enthusiasts for peace, 
do not denounce war ! Ye do not know war, the 
mighty regenerator of the souls of men!" 

Then Schmock takes us up unto a high place where 
there Is a tree, a great spreading beech. He de- 
scribes the approach of the Kaiser and his Chief of 
Staff and their staffs. They have come from the 
hospital, and are approaching the tree in profound 
meditative talk. High up the tree a watch tower 
has been built, reached by a flight of stairs. The 
War Lord ascends with his Chief of Staff and others. 
In this conning tower there are great telescopes and 
vast maps, with the use of which the Emperor Is 
perfectly familiar. He looks out over the extended 
landscape, with the glittering Meuse winding through 
It, with rusty red zigzag stripes (the trenches) , dark 
round spots (the craters), a landscape like that of 
the moon, arid, desolate, hopeless. Here and there 
patches of spring verdure, and In the grass and 
amidst the distant trees villages nestle. No — they 



THE KAISER'S MAJESTY 109 

are villages no longer. They are shapeless, waste 
places, full of horror, standing there in the diffused 
light of the evening sun. Germany's "Oberster 
Kriegsherr" surveys the scene, and his features as- 
sume a stern, unbending aspect. We are asked to 
wonder what his thoughts are. The omniscient 
Schmock cannot help us. Even he does not know. 

But he tells us about the fire-vomiting hills of the 
Meuse, the white shrapnel cloudlets, the smoking 
woods and farms, the smoking Verdun, with its soar- 
ing cathedral towers, the vomiting earth where a 
heavy shell strikes. The War Lord's stern gaze 
takes it all in, his ear listens to the undertone and 
hoarse murmur of the distant guns. The earth trem- 
bles. The greatest War Lord in history watches 
the greatest battle in history, a battle which language 
is too feeble to describe. 

• « • • • 

Schmock proceeds to tell us that it almost seemed 
as though the Battle knew its great Disposer were 
present, for from far and near came a mad resonance 
of firing. In the Disposer's presence the Battle 
threw off its wearied Sunday manner, and German 
guns thundered along the slopes of the Dead Man 
into the French trenches. 

Slowly, thoughtfully, the Kaiser descended from 
his tree, and then with rapid step to his waiting car, 
the soldiers throwing their caps into the air and yell- 
ing "Hurra! Hurra!" It was once more quiet on 
that hilltop, with its giant beech bursting Into leaf. 
The beech must have thought, says Schmock, "What 
a precious burden I have borne to-day, him in whose 
person Germany's sacred struggle for life and pros- 
perity Is personified!" 



no SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

At regular Intervals selected correspondents are 
permitted to write letters from "Grand Headquar- 
ters," descriptive of the life led by the Kaiser, and 
of the deeds of manhood, chivalry, and piety which 
fill It, All of them, of course, unite in describing his 
Imperial Majesty as a twentieth-century Bayard, 
with the tender heart of a St. Francis, and the mys- 
tic piety of a St. Thomas a Kempis. 

Soldier and Saint 

The latest of these reports deals with the Kaiser 
in a little French town. Although he might have 
made a selection of the beautiful chateaux in the 
neighbourhood, he preferred to lodge in a modest 
little house where he had only a room for receptions, 
a bedroom, and a dining-room. "And this is the 
lodging of the Kaiser of the German Empire!" 

His manner of life, we are told. Is as simple as his 
dwelling. In the morning a cup of tea or coffee, 
with some cold meat and war bread; for lunch, soup, 
meat, and fruit; for dinner, two courses and fruit. 
There Is some ordinary table wine and Kriegsbrot 
for every meal. How sick he must be of this bread ! 
But the correspondent says the War Lord enjoys It. 
The Kaiser usually Invites two or three guests to 
dinner, frequently the representatives of the Austrian 
army. The dining-room Is ornamented with hunting 
trophies from the Argonne. 

We are informed that the army immensely enjoys 
those days when the Kaiser visits the front. The 
things he has said at the front will fill a shining page 
when the history of the war comes to be written. 
The soldiers' eyes fill with tears when they see him. 



THE KAISER^S MAJESTY iii 

They are proud to hear that he has been in their 
trenches. 

His Majesty, we hear, always manages to be at 
the front on great occasions. You might think he is 
averse to fatigue. Not a bit of it. He likes fatigue. 
He has travelled longer distances by automobile than 
any of his generals. Sometimes on these trips he 
meets a marching regiment, and here is where his 
gentle knighthood is seen — he tells the chauffeur to 
go slowly lest the men be inconvenienced by the 
clouds of dust from his car! Or he stops, and cries 
out to the men, "Guten Morgen Leute!" and they 
reply, "Guten Morgen Majestat!" their eyes again 
full of tears. Again we hear that old story of the 
Kaiser tasting the soup prepared for the soldiers' 
dinners. "Give me a mouthful," he asks the cook, 
and he gulps down the stuff so condescendingly that 
even the generals' eyes fill with tears. "I eat what 
my soldiers eat," says this histrionic personage, and 
the soldiers cheer. 

One beautiful scene in a graveyard is reported. 
The colonel of a regiment which had been badly 
mauled accompanied the Kaiser to the graves of the 
men. An officer holding flowers was standing at the 
graves. The Kaiser, turning to this officer, re- 
marked that he presumed the flowers were intended 
for him; and when this supposition was confirmed. 
His Majesty took the flowers, untied the bindings, 
and laid a separate flower on each grave. But 
why should the Kaiser have thought that these flow- 
ers in that sad burying-place were intended for him? 

Charming tales are told of visits to military hos- 
pitals. To one young fellow who looked pale and 
worn he gave three weeks' furlough; another soldier, 
who had just undergone a severe operation, opened 



112 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

his eyes and saw the Kaiser tenderly looking at him. 
The soldier tried to speak, but had not sufficient 
strength. The attendants said his pale lips muttered 
"Hurra, der Kaiser!" So the Kaiser stroked his 
cheeks and asked him to lie quiet. When he got 
home the Kaiser sent the wounded man an Iron 
Cross. 

Chivalry of an almost unexampled character was 
displayed in the Kaiser's treatment of prisoners. We 
read of French officers who were so affected and 
dazed when they saw the Kaiser's majesty that they 
were rendered speechless, and even their eyes filled 
with tears. 

But it is his piety which mainly impresses this 
correspondent. A characteristic passage is the fol- 
lowing: "There is something sacred which accom- 
panies the Emperor on all his ways, and this is his 
unshakable confidence and faith in the Creator. This 
piety streams out from him over the entire army. 
Those who have seen the Kaiser at a field service 
will never forget the sight. When the Kaiser joins 
in the singing of 'Wir treten zum Beten,' his clear 
eyes raised to heaven, we remember his words of 
last autumn: 'One man with God is always in a 
majority.' " 



CHAPTER IX 

HINDENBURG 

The Hindenburg Cult: "O Hero of Tannenberg!" — Hin- 
denburg at Church — Hindenburg Dithyrambics — Hin- 
denburg in Sculpture. 

THE HINDENBURG CULT 

When the supreme War Lord called General von 
Hindenburg to assume office as Controller-In-Chief 
of the military situation he acted In accordance with 
the fervid wishes of his subjects. The victor of 
Tannenberg, the man who drove a Russian army 
into the Masurian Lakes and engineered the subse- 
quent advance Into Courland and Lithuania and the 
overthrow of Rumania, had to a most remarkable 
extent Imposed his personality on the German nation. 
His massive strength, his rough-hewn features, his 
shrewd table-talk, his care for his men, his Iron will 
and stern resolve were all qualities which appealed 
to the Teuton. They recalled the qualities of men 
under whom their forefathers had conquered, and 
all the sentiment of the nation rose In a hurricane 
of joy when the Kaiser's rescript was published. 

We shall see In the following articles the wild 
growth of the Hindenburg Cult, how It permeated 
the entire nation, how It dragged them out of the 
Slough of Despond Into which they were In danger 
of sinking. The cult began early In 191 5, It remains 

113 



114 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

undiminished, and so powerful is his name that the 
fateful retreat on the Ancre which signalised last 
February and March was carried out without a mur- 
mur, merely because the nation believed that Hin- 
denburg ordered it. Hindenburg could make no 
mistake. Hindenburg had some deep scheme in his 
brain for the overthrow of the enemy. Subsequent 
reverses in Flanders and at Verdun have done noth- 
ing to impair his reputation, and he remains the 
people's idol. 

"O Hero of TannenbergI" 

The military correspondent of the Frankfurter 
Ze'itung was highly pleased with Hindenburg's ap- 
pointment as Chief of the General Staff. He makes 
a particular point of the unity which will now mark 
the entire conduct of military affairs, and states that 
the psychological importance of the Kaiser's step lies 
in the fact that Hindenburg has been borne into his 
new office by the confidence of the undivided nation. 
The writer concludes : 

"From the bottom of their hearts the German 
nation greets Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and we 
soldiers regard them with open hearts. These are 
the men we want. We wanted them always, and 
now at last they are here. Jubilation from many 
million throats greets them, and this jubilation will 
express itself later in deeds of German heroism. The 
old military law of all wars that the personality of 
the general makes the army strong once more is 
verified. In a heavy hour, O hero of Tannenberg, 
thou takest the bridle in thy hand. But be com- 
forted, an entire nation stands behind thee !" 



HINDENBURG 115 



HiNDENBURG AT CHURCH 

Field-Marshal Hindenburg certainly stirs the pop- 
ular imagination. His table-talk, his obiter dicta, his 
views on Goethe and Schiller are sedulously circulat- 
ed by admiring writers. We have a description of 
the great man at church on one of the Whitsuntide 
holidays. We are told it was no towering Gothic 
cathedral, suitable as this might have been, in which 
the national hero worshipped God, but in a modest 
little chapel near the Russian frontier. 

He did not sit in any carved or gilded stall, among 
great prelates and dignitaries, but in one of the front 
pews, among the ordinary congregation. "He is of 
powerful appearance, tall and broad and solid. From 
his eyes an iron will speaks, but also sovereignty and 
goodness. From this man goes forth a grandeur and 
majesty which no one can resist." 

After the close of the service, when he rose to 
leave the little chapel, he strode down the aisle alone 
in solitary greatness, the entire congregation, to a 
man, standing in reverential silence until he had 
passed out. In the gaze of the simple people one 
could notice awe mingled with love for the man who 
had saved the German East and driven the despised 
invader from the land. Could one have looked into 
the hearts of those people, what fountains of endless 
gratitude might have been seen welling forth! 

And so it goes on, day after day, a growing tide of 
fulsome adulation. 

Hindenburg Dithyrambics 

The great Field-Marshal had just celebrated his 
sixty-eighth birthday, and every newspaper in the 



ii6 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Empire employed its most high-f alutin writer to com- 
pose the birthday article. Some of these productions 
are amusing, but most of them are nauseous in their 
servility and abject flattery. One Nationalist journal 
writes: "No German till the end of time will forget 
the iron hand, the steel brain, the glittering, effulgent 
spirit of our great Hindenburg. Like a star in the 
firmament he shone, leading to victory; like a pillar 
of cloud he showed his people the path they were 
to follow. Away in the remotest future, when most 
of our institutions will belong to a hoary antiquity, 
when high names and sounding reputations will have 
passed into oblivion, one name and one reputation 
will stand out from the mists of the past — a name 
and reputation of purest radiance^ — Hindenburg!" 

Another journal of more sober tendency speaks of 
Hindenburg as the great national hero for all time. 
Myths will cluster around him as they cluster around 
the heroic demigods of antiquity. He is the incar- 
nation, says this newspaper, of the German national 
genius for war, the man of hardened iron, the man 
of determination, a bright luminary just sufficiently 
dimmed by its humanity to enable us to gaze at it 
unharmed. 

A third journal declares that Hindenburg rises 
head and shoulders over his contemporaries like a 
new Knight Roland. The monumental embodiment 
of German genius, he stands beside Bismarck as the 
man who has engraved his name on the destiny of 
the nation. And so modest withal! There was 
once a Socialist who visited him, and the Socialist 
found him friendly, simple, even shy. The Socialist 
expressed astonishment, but It was pointed out to 
him by the Tdgliche Rundschau that these great men 
who overtop their fellows are all like this. 



HINDENBURG 117 

It is singular how all the journals make mention of 
Hindenburg's piety as one of his most noble attri- 
butes. Piety, as a rule, is not much in favour with 
German newspapers. They are not pious themselves, 
and piety In the Kaiser and in members of the Kai- 
ser's house has hitherto been rather roughly treated 
by the bulk of the Press, but Hindenburg's piety 
Is evidently a thing by itself. 

In the Kreuz Zettung an admirer of Hindenburg 
narrates how lately at Beuthen he was present at 
divine service with the Field-Marshal and his Staff. 
It was overpowering, he writes, to notice this man 
before the altar, his aides-de-camp behind him. He 
stood before the altar and prayed aloud, asking God 
for help and power to enable him to carry out his 
work to a victorious conclusion. Hindenburg, says 
the writer, is not an Over Man, but he is The Great 
Man, and penetrated through and through with re' 
ligioslty and the fear of God. The writer does not 
tell us whether the heavenly powers were Impressed 
by the Field-Marshal standing before the altar and 
praying aloud, but it is clearly his opinion that Hin- 
denburg conferred very considerable honour on them. 

Hindenburg in Sculpture 

Professor Cauer, a well-known sculptor, has been 
honoured by the great demigod Hindenburg with 
some sittings for a bust, and in the Bauzeitung the 
ecstatic artist delivers himself as follows: "Hinden- 
burg's entire figure, from the crown of his head to 
the soles of his feet, measures a trifle over six feet. 
He holds himself with soldierly erectness, but his 
head Is slightly bent forward, a habit which one 
always notices in big men accustomed to speak with 



ii8 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

those of lesser stature. He gives you the impression 
of a knight in his armour. His deep voice, and his 
remarks — often whimsical, but never injurious or 
ironical — are full of kindness and friendliness." 

If you look at Hindenburg closely you will notice 
a furrow over the nose drawn between the swellings 
of the brow. This furrow has been graven by the 
inward excitement arising out of the gigantic re- 
sponsibilities of the war. Sometimes you get the 
impression, Herr Cauer tells us, of something 
strained and suffering, an impression heightened 
by the yellow colour of the skin. Herr Cauer was 
astonished at the leanness of the Field-Marshal. The 
photographs had taught him to look for a fat man. 
But he is actually thin. Professor Cauer has noticed 
this growing thinness in many men taking a leading 
part in the war. Leanness increases the impression 
of energy in Hindenburg's face, and it is certainly 
preferable from the artist's point of view. Those 
gross delineations of Hindenburg one sees every- 
where give wholly false notions of him — they ignore 
the human kindness, the tender, gentle details of 
the head. 



CHAPTER X 
THE PRESS AND ITS WRITERS 

The Journalist of the Future — Hating England — ^The Hand 
of Peace — Harden of the Zukunft — Sour Criticism. 

We are fairly well acquainted with the general char- 
acteristics of the German Press and of the men who 
write for it. Here, as in many another respect, the 
war has faced us with stern truths. In the old days 
we were accustomed to regard German newspapers 
as stodgily written, heavy things, coloured with a 
prevailing provincialism and lacking in the spirited 
enterprise which distinguishes our own and the Amer- 
ican Press. We seldom looked to them for light 
and leading In International affairs. One or two 
of them obtained a certain unenviable notoriety as 
organs of the Wllhelmstrasse, but the bulk of them, 
when dealing with foreign politics, displayed an Ig- 
norance, a prejudice, an obscurantism and wrong- 
headedness which gave them a unique position In the 
World's Press. 

But the war has changed much of this. Instead 
of the diverting variety of opinion which used to 
characterise them, German papers, since the outbreak 
of war, have shown that unanimity of view which 
can only be the result of a forceful hand behind the 
scenes. Not only Is the news the work of this hid- 
den hand. Leading articles, comments, reflections, 
as well as war correspondence show the Indubitable 

119 



I20 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

marks of inspiration. The same article appears in 
the High Conservative Kreuz Zeitung, the Liberal 
Frankfurter Zeitung, and the Socialist Forwdrts, al- 
tered only so far as the same hand is altered by 
wearing different gloves. To all intents and pur- 
poses the German Press has become the abject slave 
of the Government. It dares express no opinion of 
its own if this opinion conflicts with the views of 
those in authority; and any criticism of the war and 
its conduct, or of those even remotely responsible 
for its conduct, is made with the dread of condign 
punishment falling on the offender. Enslaved in ev- 
ery particular, but gladly bearing the chains which 
seem seldom to gall them, the willing mouthpiece of 
a system which in times of peace they used to con- 
demn as a disgrace to an enlightened nation, Ger- 
man papers have sunk in the estimation of the world 
to the level of the sorry prints which used to serve 
the purposes of the third Napoleon or the third 
Alexander. 

The Journalist of the Future 

In an article in the Tdgliche Rundschau dealing 
with the work which Germany will expect from her 
foreign journalists after the war, we have much to 
arouse our interest and curiosity. By foreign journal- 
ists the Rundschau means the representatives of the 
German Press in foreign countries. 

Their task, we are told, will not be an easy one. 
Apart from the fact that in countries now hostile 
to Germany this task will be hindered by open and 
secret opposition, the demands made upon German 
journalists abroad will be of a far more exacting 
character than hitherto. 



THE PRESS 121 



One of their first duties must be to find out those 
items of interest which the principal news agencies 
of the countries in which they live do not desire to 
see circulated in Germany. For one reason or an- 
other these countries may wish to hide from Germany 
certain actions or movements or efforts of a character 
hostile to Germany; for example, all those actions 
included under the catchword, "The War after the 
War." It will be the duty of the German journalist 
living in these countries to fix his closest attention 
on all these movements, to follow every kind of 
veiled or open attack on German Influence abroad, 
and to send home faithful and minute reports. 

These German journalists must be guided by the 
principle that every other German settled in the 
country in which they live is his natural ally and 
fellow-worker, and that from these he can obtain 
many a useful hint regarding the attitude assumed by 
natives to Germany and the German cause. Journa- 
list and colonist must work into one another's hands. 

The German journalist must also keep an eye 
fixed on those publications in which foreign Govern- 
ments or other authorities Invite tenders for the 
supply of goods or for the execution of large con- 
tracts. There should be some organisation started 
In Germany through which the earliest information 
on these matters could be made available In large 
Industrial and commercial centres. Hitherto these 
centres have derived most of their Information about 
foreign tenders from ofiiclal publications, which, In 
the nature of things, are often dilatory. The prompt 
use of the journalist's Information would enable Ger- 
man contractors and manufacturers to hand in their 
tenders earlier. 

One of the most essential attributes of the foreign 



122 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

representative of German journals after the war will 
be diplomatic adroitness in his relations with foreign 
news agencies, and in his dealings with the Press 
of the country in which he resides. Much will de- 
pend on his personal influence and tact whether or 
not he Is able to have intentional or unintentional mis- 
statements rectified In the Press of the country to 
which he is accredited, mainly by the publication of 
articles written by him. 

The writer in the Rundschau Is so convinced of the 
Increasing importance of German journalists abroad 
that he Insists on the creation of a number of new 
posts for them, especially In those countries where 
hitherto French and British journalists have co- 
operated, to the detriment of German Interests and 
Influence. For example. It Is Intolerable that the 
South American Republics, with their thousands of 
German settlers, engineers, and other workers, 
should have only the Agence Havas and the Paris 
Press to fall back on. In those countries Germany 
has done far more for the population than France, 
but French and British journalists have succeeded 
In moulding public opinion, and, owing to the rich 
experiences gathered by them, have been able to act 
and react on the sentiment of the people In a way 
disastrous to Germany. 

In the opinion of the Rundschau, immediate steps 
should be taken at once. The leading German news- 
papers should proceed to select men competent to 
fulfil the responsible new duties required of them. 
These should be asked at once to attend the foreign 
language courses at the universities, so that when 
peace has been signed they may immediately pro^ 
ceed to their posts fully equipped, 

A remarkable suggestion is then made. There 



THE PRESS 123 



should be an authoritative handbook for the use and 
guidance of this new generation of German foreign 
correspondents. It might have some such title as 
"Foreign Politics in the German Press." A com- 
mittee should be appointed to make a selection of 
the best and most authoritative articles in the most 
influential German newspapers. Perhaps the Koln- 
ische Zeitung may have published a weighty and 
informing article on German interests in China, or 
the Berliner Tagehlatt may have written authorita- 
tively on France, the Kreuz Zeitung on Russia, the 
Frankfurter Zeitung on the United States, the Rund- 
schau on the South American States, and so on. These 
articles might form the body of the "Handbook" 
and be supplemented by much useful information, 
and by hints in which the new journalist would find 
enlightenment and inspiration. 

It is well to know in advance the character and 
aims of the German Press representative whom we 
are to look for after the war. There ought to be no 
difficulty in making preparations for his advent. His 
reception ought not to be lacking In warmth. 

Hating England 

The venerable Frau Gabrielle Reuter, who is a 
well-known journalist as well as a popular novelist, 
has supplied the Berlin Morgenpost with a ferocious 
article in justification of the hatred felt for Britain. 
We single out this article because of the eminence 
of the writer, and because she represents her pro- 
fession. As every one is aware, articles denunciatory 
of this country are of daily occurrence in the Ger- 
man Press, but as a rule they are by nobodies — the 
obscure mediocrities admirably satirised by Gustav 



124 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Freytag in his Schmock. But Frau Reuter is a 
woman of enormous influence, especially among her 
own sex, and when she speaks we are compelled to 
listen. 

Why should Germans not hate the English, asks 
Frau Reuter, the people who for so long have se- 
cretly waited for the day and hour to compass Ger- 
many's destruction? Their hatred is far deeper. 
It is a cold, Satanic hatred. German hatred is young 
and immature compared with the completed British 
article. 

She explains why Germans do not hate Russia 
with the same Intensity. They also have been pre- 
paring for this war. They have scandalously ill- 
treated Germans in their midst, they have laid waste 
East Prussia. But Germans do not hate them, be- 
cause they are a strange, wild race, with whom Ger- 
mans have nothing in common. 

But the English are kindred, and Germans hate 
them so bitterly because they so cynically betrayed 
their love ! Frau Reuter declares that it has become 
natural to hate the Britons. They make no secret 
of their longing for Germany's downfall, and no 
means are too disgraceful to employ to bring this 
about. All their "fair play," all their "gentleman- 
liness," qualities which once imposed so much on 
Germans, were only for home consumption at their 
island firesides. Look at their newspapers. To fan 
German hate to seething point you have only to 
circulate those journals throughout the Fatherland. 
Why denounce German hate? It has become the 
sacred duty of every German, and will endure to the 
second and third generation. Germans will be com- 
pared to that Kriemhild who allowed her kith and 



THE PRESS 125 



kin of the Nibelungs to be slaughtered in order to 
slake her revenge. 

The hatred towards England, says this furious 
lady journalist, begins to fill our entire being, even 
though Christ demanded of us that we love our en- 
emies. To-day this precept is more impossible than 
ever for normal humanity. It sounds like the stray 
tone of a flute on the battlefield. 

Frau Reuter concludes by beseeching her fellow- 
countrymen to girdle themselves with hatred as with 
brazen armour, to carry it in their hands like a 
thunderbolt. But they are not to let it poison their 
blood, and they are to protect their souls from this 
hereditary enemy of mankind. 

The Hand of Peace 

Herr Rudolph Stratz, a well-known literary light 
in the Fatherland, contributes to the Woche an 
article on "German Peace Will," in which he dis- 
cusses the effect on the population of a rejection of 
the Imperial Chancellor's peace proposals of Decem- 
ber, 19 1 6. 

Having established the fact that moral power is 
the strongest thing on earth, Herr Stratz accepts the 
"fact" that this moral force is wholly on the side 
of Germany and her allies. It is this moral force 
which has united Germany into a flaming thunder- 
cloud. If Germany has hitherto been victorious it 
will remain unconquerable after the effort of the 
levee-en-masse. The blindness of the enemy to see 
things as they are compels Germany to this final 
effort, but before the effort is put into terms of war 
the German soul, "in which hero and man dwell to- 
gether," offers the hand of peace to the enemy. 



126 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

The next question which Herr Stratz considers is, 
Will this "gesture of magnanimity" be understood 
by the enemy? He does not know. But "moral 
insanity" is a phrase coined by the British, and it is 
this moral insanity which has befogged the brains 
of Germany's enemies with a "bloody fog." Will 
the word "peace" uttered by a German mouth be 
the first beam of the sun breaking through the ex- 
halations of the night? Or is the world to see the 
Cossack still fighting for Kultur, the Zulu for civilisa- 
tion, the Maori for human dignity, the Hindoo for 
freedom, the Japanese against militarism? Herr 
Stratz cannot answer these questions; he leaves it 
to the Tower of Babel, which calls itself the enemy of 
Germany. "We wait, leaning on our swords, wait- 
ing with the quiet of the stronger." 

"But should the handful of wholesale murderers 
who lead our enemies utter the awful 'No' as re- 
sponse to our peace offer, this 'No' can only result 
in strengthening a hundredfold our confidence in our 
righteous cause." Herr Stratz declares that the 
bells of the night of St. Sylvester sound in the ears 
of Germans with voices from the distant German 
centuries. Their Iron tongues clanging through the 
air tell us that Germany in the midst of a world of 
enemies has always stood like a granite block in a 
raging sea. With death before her eyes Germany's 
sword has always eternal youth restored to her. 

Herr Stratz sees Germany as a great giant, full 
of daring, cunning, and strength. The refusal of the 
Allies to accept peace will transform the people into 
this daring, cunning, and forceful giant. And then 
comes a magnificent burst: "If it is peace, we shall 
thank God. If war — HIndenburg calls, HIndenburg 
leads, HIndenburg conquers ! Out on the fronts the 



THE PRESS 127, 



march of all Germans forward, at home all Germany 
at work. Our united people will then resemble that 
fabled sword of Balmung, welded In necessity, an- 
nealed and hardened by our will Into adamant. Noth- 
ing mortal could withstand the sword of Balmung 
when it was swung by a hero. 

"And a hero will swing it. This hero Is the Furor 
Teutonlcus. The sacred fury of our army, which 
greets thankfully an honourable and victorious peace, 
will, if disappointed in its hope of peace, all the 
readier turn its heart to God and smite the enemy 
with Its fists." 

The famous saying of Bismarck that Germans 
fear God and nothing else In the world Is quoted by 
Stratz with questionable relevancy, and he concludes: 
"Should It really happen that the first tender col- 
ours spread over the dawn, should our eyes really 
behold this dream-picture — ^the dove with the olive 
branch over the bloody weapons — it Is still too early 
to describe the feelings which would then threaten 
to burst every heart. Every German knows these 
feelings. Nearly every man on earth knows them. 
The hour In which the bells of peace shall ring out 
is so sacred and sublime that we cannot now trust 
ourselves to speak of It." 

HARDEN OF THE "ZUKUNFT" 

Maximilian Harden, the brilliant editor of the 
Zukunft, z weekly periodical published In Berlin un- 
til about three months ago, when it was suppressed, 
is a class by himself. A fervent admirer of the first 
Chancellor, and as fervent a hater of the Kaiser 
whose active interference brought about Bismarck's 
fall, Harden has never missed an opportunity of 



128 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

flinging his envenomed shafts at the August Person. 
The skill with which this is done, the absolute clear- 
ness of his attack in which everything is avoided 
which might be construed into lese-majeste has made 
Harden feared and hated by the Court sycophants 
and by all those who see in William II the hope and 
glory of his country. 

During the war Harden has taken his own inde- 
pendent line of criticism — sometimes working the 
high patriotic course, sometimes castigating with un- 
holy joy the loud-voiced nationalists whose riot of 
war language sickens him. 

In the following passages from the Zukunft he ad- 
monishes his compatriots regarding sundry short- 
comings he has noticed, and manages to say some 
very unpleasant things to them. 

Sour Criticism 

"Bridle your joy at the tidings of victory," Har- 
den tells the nation, "and rouse your conscience and 
the conscience of your neighbour [Austria-Hun- 
gary]." Speaking to those at home, he amplifies his 
meaning as follows : "We have no desire to be 
roarers, people who rend their mouths, and, un- 
armed and safe from danger, demand from their 
brothers in the field that they conquer new worlds. 
That is cheap stuff, and smacks of the gratitude of 
the ox. Carry your own limbs to the murderous fire, 
you, whether land-thiefs or counts who are so de- 
sirous of battle. We would have no patriotic ad- 
monitions from those who sit here in security, for 
whom the war is filling their purses, doubling their 
pay, their prestige, and their power. Their corn, 
minerals, manufactures are far too highly paid for. 



THE PRESS 129 



These people must be quiet, and honestly ask them- 
selves whether their enthusiasm for a heroic age is 
not connected with some trace of a desire to prolong 
the duration of the war business on which they are 
flourishing." 

Harden is angry that people who advise what is 
reasonable are grumbled at in Germany, but let them 
not weary in well-doing. "The man who washes gold 
taken from a blood-red river bed need not neces- 
sarily be ashamed of his occupation, but let him be 
silent about the devotion of others to the Father- 
land, and do not let him preach the deification of 
heroes. We have no need of usurers who take ad- 
vantage of the necessities of the masses who are 
seeking their modest and indispensable nourishment. 
By all means let merchants have a profit to cover 
their expenses, to provide an existence for them and 
their families. But usury with food is a deadly 
sin, and he who at this time coins meat, corn, vege- 
tables is a downright rascal. He who stores butter, 
hoping that the price will rise still higher, belongs 
to the gallows, and the poor railway conductor who 
fasted in order that he might send lard to the lads 
at the front is entitled to hang him. Let us be 
decent and devout, and not manufacture idols and 
strut about because others are gladly bleeding for 
us." 

Herr Harden asks his fellow-countrymen to think 
of that ancient Roman who, when Mars thundered 
by in his golden chariot, made a garland of corn, 
saddled his swiftest steed, and rode to the nearest 
altar to lay his garland before the god, with the 
prayer that the dread deity would do no mischief 
either to seed or harvest. 



CHAPTER XI 

ZEPPELINS AND FRIGHTFULNESS 

Defending the Raiders — ^The Great Destruction — Scoffing 
at Massacre. 

Prolonged and minute study of the German Press 
does not tend to support the theory that a consider- 
able section of the nation is opposed to the new 
frightfulness any more than it was opposed to the 
old. Occasionally one notes in an obscure Socialist 
journal a lame protest against the employment of 
"extreme" measures, but the protest, such as it is, 
is directed not so much against any moral questions 
involved as against the inadvisability of adopting a 
species of warfare which will make It more difficult 
for Germany after the war to resume normal rela- 
tions with her present enemies. The entire nation, 
almost, is steeped in this horrible desire for fright- 
fulness. They desire it. They howl for It when the 
authorities, visited by a gleam of reason, hesitate. 
To say that only the military and naval authorities 
are responsible Is to say something for which there 
is absolutely no foundation. Let the following selec- 
tions from well-known papers speak for themselves. 

Defending the Raiders 

The Tdgliche Rundschau, which has a well-de- 
served reputation for truculence, second only to that 

130 



ZEPPELINS 131 



enjoyed by the Deutsche Tageszeitung, publishes an 
article entitled, "Our Good Conscience in the Expe- 
ditions of our Airships," in which full vent is given 
to the brutal ruthlessness of the large school of 
Anglophobes represented by this paper. 

This article in the Rundschau mocks at the "howl- 
ing" of the French and British Press regarding re- 
cent air raids, and finds amusement in our alleged 
silence about the actual military damage done, and 
in the prominence we give to the injuries inflicted 
on women, aged persons, and children. Is it intended, 
asks the Rundschau, to impress either the German 
people or the German mihtary authorities by this 
manoeuvre? The German heart, otherwise so easily 
moved, makes no response. Germans, we are told, 
sincerely regret the fate of every English family 
into whose "peaceful kitchen" a bomb falls, but as 
far as popular opinion can be gauged no one would 
limit the action of the Zeppelins or other aircraft in 
their work of destruction. On the contrary, the 
nation's conscience applauds this action, and the 
raids of the aircraft are followed with the utmost 
satisfaction. "We are convinced that in our air- 
craft we possess a weapon the ruthless employment 
of which will influence the result of the war, and 
bring about its speedier conclusion." 

"Were the case so that we were only able to drop 
twenty bombs on British towns every three months 
or so, It would be better to desist altogether from 
this method of warfare. It would have no military 
value, and would only serve to intensify hatred, bit- 
terness, and slander. Pinpricks are invariably a 
sign of weakness. Our German moral feelings are 
on far too high a pinnacle to warrant us in pursuing 
a policy of this sort." 



132 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

In its most emphatic type the Rundschau proceeds: 
"We can attack our principal enemy in his own house. 
We can do this, and we must do it. We must leave 
no means unneglected which are calculated to bring 
the end of the war nearer. This we owe to our own 
people, to their future, to our field greys, and to 
their wives and children. That English wives and 
children happen to perish in such undertakings is 
matter for regret, and we do regret it, but one Ger- 
man field grey man is of more value in our eyes 
than a dozen English women and children, and a 
single German village must be more valuable to us 
than the entire City of London." 

The Rundschau conjures up the picture of what 
would happen to German women and children should 
the British, French, and Russians succeed in defeat- 
ing Germany, should they have an opportunity of 
"cooling their courage" on them, should they suc- 
ceed in inundating Germany "with those savages 
from all parts of the world who have displayed such 
proof of their noble humanity in East Prussia, in 
Togo, Cameroon, and New Guinea." 

"We would not shed needless blood," concludes 
the article, "we would not even seek revenge for in- 
justice we have suffered. Where should we begin, 
where end? We are not judges on earth. Bismarck 
did the correct thing, morally and politically, when 
he ignored the lamentations of tender humanitarians 
and ordered the bombardment of Paris. Thereby 
he brought the war to an end. We would be untrue 
to our duty if from feelings of so-called humanity 
we did not ruthlessly employ and exploit for all it is 
worth so efficient a weapon of war as the airship. 
In this hour the highest commandment of human 
charity for us is — do all that is in your power to 



ZEPPELINS 133 



bring about for Germany a speedy and triumphant 
end to the war. If the Zeppelins and other aircraft 
are effective for this purpose let them go forth. They 
are effective, and therefore we have a good con- 
science, and our conscience will be all the easier the 
more often they go forth, and the more destructive 
are their operations." 

The Great Destruction 

The well-known Berlin firm of UUstein & Co. have 
published a book entitled Zeppelins over England, 
which they have copiously illustrated with horrific 
pictures of blazing and devastated English towns, 
factories, harbours, and ships. This book apparently 
collects all the awful tales of calamity, in all their 
absurdity, with which the German public have been 
regaled for the past twelve months. These we need 
not repeat. But there are new features as well, newer 
and spicier details of terrible destruction served up, 
from which a few extracts may be given. We note 
the glee with which the author does his work, his 
gloating over horrors, his howls of fiendish joy. 
Doubtless he knows his public. 

The author supposes himself in a Zeppelin, which 
has already reached the English coast, and has been 
appointed to operate between Yarmouth and Nor- 
wich. 

A well-known railway unites these two towns. The 
trains on this line travel relatively slowly, but on 
this night their pace was accelerated. It was "flight, 
flight!" But above in the air there was something 
moving still more rapidly. Bursting bombs hailed 
on the railway stations, destroying, tearing. The 
metals rolled up like thin wire. A searchlight is 



134 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

turned on the Zeppelin, a bomb extinguishes It, and 
batteries which had fired in the light of the search- 
light were silenced for ever. 

"The Destruction goes its way along the line, 
which is torn up beyond recognition. A train ap- 
proaches at racing speed. \Vith thunderous crashing, 
which is heard above the droning of the air-screws, 
the locomotive pitches into the ruins, turns over, 
the train burns. British troops will not be transport- 
ed on that line for some time to come. The Ger- 
man Death swings his scythe, and prepares him- 
self for new blows. This is War — war which you 
would have. The starved, ruined Germany ap- 
proaches you!" 

In Lincolnshire, proceeds our liar, railway-sta- 
tions, great stores, barracks were attended to. Bombs 
struck a remount depot. Many hundreds of horses 
were killed, torn to pieces. "There must be no pity 
for these horses. It is another blow for the British, 
front. Do the British tacticians require horses to 
storm the trenches? One less trouble for our com- 
rades in France." 

Another Zeppelin Is approaching the coast. "For- 
ward, yonder is England!" There Is a ship below. 
Its three slender smokestacks are visible. On this 
ship fell the first iron greeting. Badly injured, the 
stricken ship runs to the coast and is stranded. "One 
ship less." At the end of Spurn Head the lighthouse 
flames out. Crash down on it went a bomb, and the 
proud edifice toppled over and fell with loud tumult 
across the mole. "One mark less to steer by !" "And 
the loss Is all the more keenly felt because of the 
difficulty of navigating the river up to Hull. The 
English Admiralty, of course, denies everything, as 
usual. Lighthouse? Nothing of the kind. That 



ZEPPELINS 135 



was a lame mule and a young, innocent child that 
the bomb fell on." 

Much savage gloating is gloated over Grimsby, 
which is alleged to have suffered terribly. "Here 
in Grimsby are the most dangerous enemies of our 
U-boats — ^the fishermen, mine-sweepers, and the pa- 
trol boatmen, who sniff out the submarines." Great 
execution was done among oil-tanks, on which in- 
cendiary bombs were dropped. We get the words 
of command which the commanders of the Zeppelins 
call out to their crews: 

"Incendiary bombs !" 

"Quick fire!" 

And then columns of dense smoke and forked 
flame shoot up to the heavens. Munition factories 
burst in a million fragments. Their value is millions 
of pounds. "Incendiary bombs!" And in eight or 
ten places fire — a monstrous fire, lurid in the night. 
The place is bright as day. Panic! There under- 
neath they are running wildly about, seeking to save 
themselves, seeking shelter. Close by is the railway 
station. One train after another steams out of the 
station, and a congested mass of people storms the 
building, seeking flight. Hundreds, thousands! 

"Looking at the dense masses tightly squeezed 
together a horrible recollection dawns on the Zep- 
pelin commander. The Zeppelin hovers over the 
station. Not very long ago in Carlsruhe there was 
a joyful festal multitude in the streets. The enemy 
bombs crashed down on innocent people, shattering, 
tearing, killing. Hundreds of children wallowed in 
their blood. Remember Carlsruhe ! No, we are Ger- 
mans, we are Huns, barbarians! We do not fight 
against children, and the commandant left the word 
of command unspoken!" 



136 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

After their night of terror in which the entire 
Eastern Coast had burst into flames the order was 
given "Homewards!" A fiery monster sprang up 
to the sky almost licking the clouds. It was their 
last bomb. "The air seems to rotate, a current 
seizes the Zeppelin, shakes the gondolas, beats on 
the hull. The gigantic torch of fire is our signpost, 
and illuminates the great grey Zeppelin, which soars 
ever higher and higher, unapproachable as it stands 
out to sea." 

Scoffing at Massacre 

An article in the Deutsche Tageszeitung by the 
notorious Count Reventlow dealing with the Arme- 
nian massacres may find a place in this section. 
Nothing can exceed the brutality and sinister indif- 
ference of this Prussian aristocrat to the fate of 
the unfortunate race which has been done to death 
at the command of the Kaiser's ally and friend. 

The Count ridicules the idea that Americans and 
British should concern themselves with the internal 
affairs of a Power with which neither of them has 
any right to interfere. The United States may 
threaten a breach of diplomatic relations with Tur- 
key, but Herr Reventlow expresses a hope that the 
Sublime Porte will not allow itself to be moved. If 
Turkey is of opinion that in order to crush the Ar- 
menian agitation and to prevent its recurrence, all 
and every means are necessary, it is guilty of no 
murder and no atrocity, and only takes those meas- 
ures which in its opinion are justifiable and neces- 
sary, all the more justifiable and necessary as 
Turkey is now carrying on a struggle for life and 
death against numerous enemies. It would be ask- 



ZEPPELINS 137 



ing too much of Turkey to require it to nourish an 
internal enemy at its breast merely because such a 
course would be well-pleasing to the English and 
Americans. 

The time is past, says the Count, when the Great 
Powers can interfere with Turkey as they please. 
As soon as the German Empire takes up the posi- 
tion that this Armenian business is an internal af- 
fair of its Turkish ally, concerning Turkey alone, 
it will be no concern of anybody what Turkey does 
with her revolutionary and blood-sucking Armeni- 
ans. 

Count Reventlow is indignant that a German 
newspaper, the Frankfurter Zeitung, should be 
found which condescends to justify Turkish action, 
or to defend libellous attacks on German Consuls. 
It Is a political mistake to take any notice of these 
attacks. "We Germans are not obliged to give an 
account of our actions either to our enemies or to 
neutrals. If we begin this business we shall be 
obliged to continue it. We shall certainly not be 
ensnared into discussing with the British and Amer- 
ican Press matters which concern Turkey alone. To 
do so would be to play the enemy game and to sow 
distrust between Germany and Turkey." 

It is a matter of complete indifference to Ger- 
many, says Count Reventlow, whether a British 
noble lord has declared that 800,000 Armenians 
have been slaughtered. No one in Germany is 
worrying whether or not another cartload of atroci- 
ties has been dumped on her. The place of the 
German Empire and of every Individual German 
Is at the side of their Turkish ally, and without 
criticism. 



CHAPTER XII 

WAR MONUMENTS 

Commemorating the Dead — A Mountain Monument — Nail- 
ing: The Hindenburg Idol — Hindenburg in Gold and 
Iron — The Angels and Hindenburg, 

In the German Press much space is devoted to dis- 
cussing the form which monuments to dead soldiers 
will take after the war. There seems to be a gen- 
eral aversion towards the system followed in 1871, 
when every town, important or insignificant, set up 
its own "Krieger Denkmal," or its statues of Wil- 
helm I, or Bismarck, or Moltke, hardly one of 
which has any pretension to artistic merit. But 
they were all big and bulky, with masses of stone 
and bronze and much rather gruesome ornamenta- 
tion. In hardly a single case was there a vestige 
of real feeling or inspiration. In the Deutsche 
Tageszeitunff we hear the following proposal: 

Commemorating the Dead 

If all these silly monuments were taken down 
from their ridiculous pedestals, now that copper 
is so scarce, and melted into guns and munitions 
they would serve a far better purpose than they 
serve now. 

With regard to the future, the most popular pro- 
posal for commemorating the dead is the forma- 

138 



WAR MONUMENTS 139 

tion of a "Hain," or grove, to be called the "Hel- 
denhain," or Hero's Grove. 

These groves are altogether a German concep- 
tion, and they existed in the most remote periods 
of antiquity. They must be of oak trees, in ac- 
cordance with the ancient tradition. Each dead 
soldier is to have an oak planted in his memory. 
The oaks would be planted in a circle, with a space 
in the middle, in which a temple or pergola might 
be built. In the old German forests the priests 
used to utter their incantations after listening to the 
rustling of the oak leaves in the wind. 

If a community should think that the idea of a 
pergola or temple smacks rather of paganism, a 
lime tree (linde) might be planted in the Centre of 
the grove. This would be called the Peace Linden, 
or the Kaiser's Linden. And just as the oak sym- 
bolises German martial power, so does the lime re- 
mind the Germans of domestic peace. "Our fore- 
fathers regarded the lime as sacred." 

Round the Hain, and sheltering it from the wind 
and the dust, there must be a thick, high hedge, an 
orderly, well-arranged tangle of red thorn, wild 
rose, elder, and honeysuckle. "The birds will nest 
here, and evenings, when the community go up (the 
Hain must be on an elevation) to remember their 
dead or think of the glory of their Fatherland, it 
will be pleasant to hear their joyful choralling in the 
thickets and listen to the whispering of the oaks." 

A Mountain Monument 

Startlingly original is the following: 
According to the Breslau Generalanzeiger a gi- 
gantic war monument to commemorate fallen Silesian 



I40 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

soldiers Is to be erected in the heart of the province 
on the Angels' Mountain of the Zobten range. This 
mountain, which is about 3,000 ft. high, is a promi- 
nent object and seen from all parts of the Silesian 
lowlands. The intention is to cut into terraces 
about 800 feet of the upper part of the mountain, 
and to give this portion a regular conical form. On 
the summit, and raised on a mighty base of rock, a 
colossal building surmounted by a cupola is to be 
raised. At the four corners of the building, on the 
roof, fires will flame out all night long and be vis- 
ible from all parts of Silesia. 

NAILING 

It is impossible to realise anything more grotesque 
than the craze which mastered the German people 
in regard to the "nailing" of monuments to serve 
as symbols and tokens of the nation's devotion to 
the cause of the war, and of their resolution to con- 
tinue it to a victorious conclusion. A popular gen- 
eral, a national emblem, a mythical hero, the his- 
torical representative of a state or district, was 
carved in wood, framed in gigantic proportions and 
set up In some public square or popular resort. The 
figure thus set up was to be covered with nails, ham- 
mered into the wood, the nails to be sold at certain 
fixed sums, according to the metal of which they 
were made — Iron, silver, or gold. Some war char- 
ity was usually selected as the recipient of the funds 
thus collected. 

The HIrdenburg monument, a gigantic figure of 
the "Great Strategist," erected in the Berlin Tler- 
garten, is perhaps the most amazing of these war 
monuments. The following extracts and comments 



WAR MONUMENTS 141 

from the Press will enable the reader to form a 
vivid conception of this extraordinary craze which 
has obsessed the German people. It may be noted 
that men of better taste were often revolted by the 
crudity and grossness of it all, and used no ambigu- 
ous phrases in their endeavours to bring their com- 
patriots to a saner frame of mind. 

The Hindenburg Idol 

We are informed that the Hindenburg statue is 
strikingly like the original, showing all his massive 
dignity, his rugged Teutonic features, "like those of 
the heroes who fought under Arminius," and his 
"shrewd benevolence," whatever this may be. 

The statue to be covered with iron nails at a shil- 
ling each rests on a square pedestal over six feet 
high. Hindenburg himself is 33 feet high from the 
soles of his mighty boots to the crown of his colos- 
sal head. There are 90 cubic metres of wood em- 
ployed. The "Schmocks" of the Berlin Press tell 
us that between the bottom of his military mantle 
and the pedestal, "an average-sized man in a top- 
hat might safely stand." 

The great Field-Marshal stands "in an easy atti- 
tude." His cap is in his hands, which rest in front 
on his sword. 

Even Berliners, probably the most unaesthetlc 
population in Germany, are feeling nervous about 
the "Kolossal" wooden monument of Hindenburg 
opposite the Reichstag building. They object to 
the bulk of the monstrous thing, but, above all, they 
seem to squirm at the idea of hammering nails into 
the vital and tender portions of their idol's anat- 
omy. They are comforted with the reflection that 



142 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

it is only wood which is punctured by the nails, but 
the idea is gruesome and cannot be ignored. To 
hammer nails into a dragon or an Iron Cross or an 
eagle, even into a mythical person, even into the 
Archangel Michael, may be quite all right, but into 

Hindenburg ! 

In another journal we have further details of the 
monument. The great strategist's face is said to 
have a serious expression, his eyes a far-away look. 
His right hand holds his sword, his left is laid over 
his right arm and holds his cap. The open mili- 
tary cloak displays the Pour le Merite order. Hin- 
denburg's head is over 4 feet long, his sabre is over 
20 feet long. His boots are so big that ten men 
could be hidden in one of them. The weight of 
the wooden monument Is 20 tons, and is built of 
twenty-one separate portions carved out of 125 
thick planks. Into the head and hands no nails will 
be hammered. To cover the other parts 1,600,000 
nails will be required. The nail armour, when com- 
pleted, is calculated to weigh ten tons. An iron 
nail costs a mark, a silver nail five marks, a gold 
nail 100 marks. Each contributor is presented 
with a pin bearing the inscription, "For the Iron 
Hindenburg." 

Hindenburg in Gold and Iron 

The Tdgliche Rundschau writes that all is not 
well with the colossal Hindenburg idol erected at 
Berlin In front of the Reichstag building, and whose 
dimensions were proudly published by the Press to 
a wondering Fatherland. It now seems that al- 
though more than two years have elapsed since the 
huge thing was erected only patches of the Field- 



WAR MONUMENTS 143 

Marshal's boots and the hem of his military cloak 
have been covered with nails. 

Every effort has been made to give him his "Iron 
Armour." The school children have had holidays 
in order that they might proceed in their thousands 
to hammer in their nails, each of which costs a shil- 
ling. Soldiers in barracks have had leave for the 
same purpose, and several newspapers are raising 
funds which are to be distributed among necessitous 
patriots eager to drive in a nail, but not eager to 
pay for it. And yet the work does not progress 
much. The great image of the Field-Marshal has 
still vast expanses in which not a single nail has yet 
been driven. 

We are informed that a square tenth of a metre 
cost £7 105. to be-nail. The hem of the cloak is 
over 30 feet long, and before it is covered with 
nails £700 must be expended. After a month's 
drumming by the chief Mumbo Jumbo men they 
have managed to cover half a yard of hem. 

Most nailers show a preference for Hindenburg's 
boots, which are painted a bright yellow. Consid- 
erable progress has been made here, although the 
boots are over two yards high, but much still re- 
mains to be done, for the Tdgliche Rundschau tells 
us that gaping patches of yellow wood are still vis- 
ible. A gallery has been built round the idol, ap- 
proached by ladders from the ground. On the oc- 
casion of Hindenburg's recent birthday there was 
a good deal of crowding, and citizens with no de- 
sire to waste time brought their own hammers — 
hundreds of them. 

The most difficult problem for the Mumbo Jumbo 
men is the outlining on the plinth of the name Hin- 
denburg with gold nails. Each of these nails cost 



144 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

£5, and in order to cover the most modest of the 
letters, namely, I, 280 nails are necessary, repre- 
senting a total of £1,400 for I alone. There are 
very many rich citizens in Berlin, but only 400 have 
been found to hammer in a gold nail. There are 
unpleasant rumours afloat that the £5 nails are not 
gold at all, but only gilded. 

In order to erect this ugly nightmare £5,000 was 
spent. It was hoped that it would bring in £150,- 
000, but these hopes have been crushed. Berlin 
will certainly not cover Hindenburg with iron, and 
appeals are now being made to the provincial cit- 
ies. The appeal will hardly be successful, as nearly 
every large town has an idol of its own at which 
Its citizens are busily hammering. Till the end of 
August, 19 17, only £35,000 had been collected, or 
less than a quarter of the expected total. 

The Angel and Hindenburg 

It is reserved for Lustige Blatter to surpass all 
its competitors with a fine outbreak of poetry and 
patriotism combined. We have a full-page picture 
of a night in the Berlin Tiergarten. Stars in mul- 
titudes are burning through the sky. In the back- 
ground there is the Victory Column, in the fore- 
ground that monument of vulgarity, the colossal 
wooden idol of Hindenburg. Standing on tiptoe 
beside one of the Field-Marshal's boots is an angel 
of the chubby boy variety, a brilliant aureole round 
his head, in one hand a hammer, in the other a nail 
in the form of a scintillating star. We are unable 
to reproduce the poetic aroma of the verses below 
the picture, but we can venture a faithful transla- 
tion, as follows: 



WAR MONUMENTS 145 

"The Christ-child has extracted on Christmas 
night a star-nail in all stillness, from the high- 
vaulted arch of heaven and brought it down to 
earth. Doing homage to genuine heroism, which 
is ready to sacrifice its blood, the Christ-child ham- 
mers the star-nail into the Marshal's coat of honour, 
to the renown of German arms." 

It is a beautiful and inspiring thought. 



CHAPTER XIII 
WAR ART: PICTORIAL AND MUSICAL 

An Illustrated Journal — ^Angels of Death — The German 
Spring — Music: Police Music — Patriotism and Operas 
— "Deutschland Uber AUes." 

German art as it has been made manifest by the 
war is well worth a careful study. As we shall see 
in the subjoined extracts German nature has made 
German war art. Let us begin with pictorial art 
as it has been revealed in periodicals. 

The following refers to a typical example of war 
art. Similar drawings have been produced in hun- 
dreds, and enjoy enormous popularity. 

An Illustrated Journal 

The latest number of the Leipzig Illustrirte 
Zeitung, Germany's most important pictorial 
weekly, enables us to catch a glimpse of the artistic 
leanings of the people after twenty-one months of 
war. The frontispiece is a design of flaming 
torches, battle flags, iron crosses, blazing ruins, and 
flying Taubes, with a border of oak leaves. In the 
centre is a ghastly picture of a Zeppelin vomiting 
death and destruction over an English city filled with 
tall factory chimneys rising in a choking atmosphere 
of flame and smoke. 

In the centre of the paper is a fanciful picture of 
"Attacks by German flying machines on English 

146 



^ WAR AET 147 

fortified coast towns: German seaplanes crossing 
the North Sea on their way to England." Between 
this picture and an officer inspecting mines we have 
"An Easter Prayer" — a wayside crucifix silhouetted 
against an evening sky, with two German soldiers 
in adoration before It. 

Over the page we have a picture of a monstrous 
Austrian mortar, its gigantic outline thrust into the 
dark night, and soldiers busy with its complicated 
mechanism. Inset is a hymn, "Salve Sancta Bar- 
bara," St. Barbara being the patron saint of the 
Austrian army. The hymn reminds the Saint of 
what she has done for her devoted soldiers, and 
asks her to accept their adoration. It tells her that 
she has fearfully routed the enemy, and that the 
enemy, thanks to her efforts, will remember Aus- 
trian cannonading for a hundred years. 

Probably, with the object of softening the coarse- 
ness and pltilessness of it all, we have no fewer than 
half a dozen pictures of German soldiers discours- 
ing music to crowds in tortured France, Belgium, 
and Russia, the huge drums and brasses being 
thumped and blown with all the vigour of conquer- 
ors. 

Angels of Death 

A cartoon in Ulk, the comic supplement of the 
Berliner Tagehlatt, is intended to express the indig- 
nation of the people at the Allies' rejection of the 
"Kaiser's Peace Proposals." 

"Very well, then we shall send out other Angels 
of Peace." These are the words below the picture 
on the front page of Ulk. The cartoon is a repul- 
sive drawing without a vestige of skill or humour. 



148 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

Over a desolated landscape of riven trees and waste 
places, the three gigantic figures of Hindenburg, 
Falkenhayn, and Mackensen are flying in the char- 
acter of angels of destruction and death. The ar- 
tist has certainly succeeded in lending truculence and 
brutality to their faces. Enormous dark pinions 
support them in their flight, and in their hands are 
flaming swords to execute vengeance on those who 
dare to reject a German peace. The three angels 
of death are dressed in pickelhauben, military 
greatcoats, and top-boots. 

The German Spring 

Kladderadatsch is another of Germany's "humor- 
ous" weeklies. It issued a special "Spring Num- 
ber," the idea of the publishers being to show in 
"humorous" form the happy season of spring 
brightened and made still more "German" by the 
victorious course of German arms. 

The frontispiece shows a gigantic sword plunged 
deeply into a ploughed field. The guard of the 
sword is sprawled over with a German eagle, the 
hilt has sprouted, and from its rings shoot forth 
luxurious green, rising to a cloudless sky. There is 
a man ploughing peaceful fields in the background, 
a broad stream, a ruined burg, a church, and a shep- 
herd herding sheep. But dominating the entire 
landscape the sword with its grotesque corona of 
green branches. 

The next picture is entitled "Withered Leaves in 
Spring," and shows a naked German warrior of 
very athletic proportions in the form of an angel, 
his pinions fixed, a pickelhaube on his head. He is 
blowing furiously, and flying about in front of his 



WAR ART 149 

strong blast are various British, French, and Rus- 
sian newspapers, regarded as specially inimical to 
Germany. 

Next we have a spring landscape dominated by a 
gigantic figure of Mars, leaning on a blood-smeared 
sword, and hideously smiling as he looks down on 
a shady place where lilies of the valley are grow- 
ing. The German name for these flowers is "May 
Bells," and Mars, familiarly addressing them, says, 
"And yet, notwithstanding my thunder, the Ger- 
man May Bells are ringing!" 

Finally, we have a picture of "German Spring on 
the Bagdad Railway." It represents the railway 
passing through a wide tropical plain, with a man 
on a camel in the distance and a fort from which 
the Crescent floats. Along the line comes Ger- 
mania, tripping as gracefully as her rather opulent 
proportions permit. Her hair is garlanded with 
the oak leaves of victory, and she carries over one 
arm a huge basket of flowers, which she daintily 
strews along the side of the railway. Over her 
abundant bosom is the Black Eagle. 

There are pictures in this "Spring" number 
which are unspeakably filthy, and it is supplied with 
letter-press of a vulgarity, brutality, and obscenity 
which no German "comic" journal is, apparently, 
able to avoid. 

MUSIC 

With justice the German nation claims pre-emi- 
nence in the art of music. Names like Beethoven 
and Bach, Schumann and Schubert, Mozart and 
Gluck, Wagner and Brahms have become house- 
hold words all the world over. That this lofty pre- 



I50 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

eminence has been maintained cannot be said. Long 
before the war the dry rot of decay and degeneracy 
had set in. We think at once of names like Strauss 
and Reger. With the outbreak of war debasement 
on a still more profound scale set in, and the follow- 
ing notices go to illustrate this. "If music be the 
soul of love" which comes o'er one 

"like the sweet south 
That breathes upon a bank of violets," 

what are we to say to Strauss's new Alpine sym- 
phony? 

The composer of Salome and Electra is nothing 
if not original, and judging by the section headings 
of the coming symphony it is a very weird and 
original piece of work. The following are the 
movements: Night. Sunrise. The Climb. Hunt- 
ing Horns from Afar. Entering the Forest. Wan- 
dering by the Stream. The Waterfall. Appear- 
ance. On Flowery Meadows. On the Heights. 
Through Thickets. Losing the Way. On the Gla- 
cier. Dangerous Moments. On the Summit. Vi- 
sion. Mists Arise. The Sun Grows Dark. Elegy. 
Quiet before Storm. Hurricane and Storm. De- 
scent. Sunset. Conclusion : Night. 

Police Music 

The two following passages illustrate prevailing 
sentiment and require no comment. 

The general commanding the nth Army Corps, 
stationed at Hamburg, Altona, and the neighbour- 
hood. Is keenly alive to what he calls the spiritual 
and intellectual interests of the soldiers under his 
command. 



WAR ART 151 



His latest ukase deals with the music played to 
popular audiences in public gardens and other open 
spaces, in cafes, restaurants, and similar resorts. In 
the general's opinion most of the music offered to 
the public at these places is of so light and shallow a 
character — musical comedy airs, waltzes, rag-time 
catches, and the like — as to be "wholly at variance 
with the seriousness and greatness of the time." 
The general has therefore issued an order that this 
music — so unworthy of Germans in days of such 
earnestness — must cease. Any one offending 
against this ordinance will be punished by the po- 
lice. 

As the Hamburg Fremdenhlatt points out this 
order constitutes the police the judges of music 
which is or is not in accordance with the serious- 
ness of the times, and citizens will inevitably ask 
themselves whether the police have been sufficiently 
trained in the niceties of musical ert and in the in- 
fluence of the various kinds of music on the human 
soul to carry out the wishes of this exacting gen- 
eral in a reasonable manner. 

Patriotism and Operas 

The opening of the new opera season affords 
patriotic musical critics a welcome opportunity of 
airing their sentiments. They express a childish 
delight that operatic theatres have turned their se- 
rious attention to the exclusion of the works of for- 
eign composers. The admiration of what is un- 
German and foreign is, we are told, one of the most 
shameful weaknesses of the Teutonic nations, and 
nowhere has this admiration been more fulsome and 
more out of place than in the realm of music. One 



152 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

musical critic writes : "Thank God, we now see an 
end to this loathsome sycophancy. This nation of 
Germans, with music welling up in their souls, with 
the fresh, full streams of song in their hearts, the 
divine gift of Terpsichore which has flooded the 
German soul, that we should descend to adopt the 
impure strains of France and England, Italy and 
Russia is intolerable. The Olympus of music be- 
longs to us. The gods of sound are of German 
blood and speak to German souls. Gluck and 
Weber, Beethoven, Mozart, Schumann, Schubert 
and Wagner, Strauss, Weingartner, and Reger, are 
they not all of Teutonic tongue, and are they not 
our own?'* 

And therefore we are told that the coming sea- 
son will see the foreign opera absolutely taboo. 
Sneering remarks are made about the superficiality 
of Carmen, about Madame Butterfly and La Bo- 
heme. The shallowness of these works, their lack 
of "appeal to the soul," their silly, meretricious 
glitter must no longer disgrace the German opera 
stage. A long black list of foreign composers is 
announced, and satisfaction is expressed that on not 
a single German stage this autumn and winter will 
the works of Puccini, Mascagni, and Leoncavallo, 
of Debussy, Saint-Saens, Charpentier, and Delius 
be heard. 

"Deutschland uber Alles" 

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the writing of 
"Deutschland, Deutschland iiber Alles" inspires the 
Tdgliche Rundschau to the following diverting out- 
burst. 

"In view of what we possess in this song we can 



WAR ART 153 

turn away with pride from the calumnies of our 
enemies. We have a far greater right to such a 
song than the British to their 'Rule, Britannia,' or 
the French to their 'Marseillaise.' The enemy may 
call it an imperialistic song of conquest, a proof of 
German arrogance, but all that leaves us cold. 

"When other nations throw all this in our teeth 
they confuse self-respect and the love of the Father- 
land with presumption and megalomania. We shall 
retain the song with its good old melody, and we 
Germans shall be proud that we have become such 
splendid fellows, that we do not need to run syco- 
phantically after strangers, to be trodden under foot 
by them. 

"And it is in this sense that the song storms 
throughout the world wherever the German tongue 
is heard. No longer shall we be satisfied to supply 
the Anglo-Saxon world with its clerks, barbers, and 
waiters. We do not want the blessings of Russian 
civilisation. We wish to be Germans and remain 
such, conscious of our peculiar character and of our 
mission in the world. It is only in this way that we 
can compel the enemy world to respect us. We re- 
nounce gladly all desire for their friendship and 
love. 

"The French, if they wish, may talk in their 
'Marseillaise' about the 'jour de gloire'; the Eng- 
lish, with their 'Rule, Britannia,' may announce 
their desire for sea dominion, world-power, and 
riches. But we thunder out against them all as 
German battle-cry this song of union and fidelity, 
thunder it out over the trenches, over all lands and 
seas, this proud song of the German singer: 

" 'Deutschland, Deutschland, iiber AUes, 
t)ber AUesinder Welt!'" 



CHAPTER XIV 
THEATRES AND THE DRAMA 

"The Franctireurs"— "The Devil's Politics"— "The War 
Reconciles" — "The German Armourer." 

Only the other day a leading dramatic critic of 
Berlin was loudly deploring the sterility of German 
playwrights. The war, with all its potentialities of 
inspiration, with all its quickening events of a colos- 
sal character, had failed to stir a ripple on the sur- 
face of the stagnant pool. Only mediocrities had 
a hearing, or those who succeeded in throwing a 
meretricious glitter of patriotism over their sorry 
melodrama. 

"The Franctireurs" 

Early in the war the Wattenburg Theatre in 
Leipzig brought out a patriotic play called "The 
Franctireurs." 

The play at first was interdicted by the police on 
the ground that the text had not been sanctioned 
by the authorities, and that portions of it drew 
forth the noisy disapprobation of the audience. 

The play deals with the present war, the scene is 
laid in a Belgian country house, and the dramatis 
persona are German and Belgian officers and the 
peasants of the neighbouring village. 

A German infantry captain discovers that his 
154 



THEATRES AND THE DRAMA 155 

brother-in-law, a civilian Belgian, has either shot, or 
has caused to be shot, the leader of a German Uhlan 
patrol. Undisturbed by the ties of relationship, 
and ignoring the patriotism of the Belgian franc- 
tireur, the captain takes a terrible vengeance on his 
relative and on the peasants who sided with him. 
Judging by the meagre newspaper comments, the 
audience was rather divided in opinion, a portion of 
it evidently not sympathising with the German cap- 
tain's Kultur, 

"The Devil's Politics" 

A more ambitious effort was that of Hans Lux, a 
well-known minor dramatist. The Diisseldorf 
papers — the play was first produced in the Rhenish 
city — give the subjoined description of this dra- 
matic effort, which they call a three-act political com- 
edy. Its title is The Devil's Politics. 

The Diisseldorfer seems very proud of the play. 
It is a small thing, but their own, and is packed full 
of political allusion bearing on the present situa- 
tion, which lends it a fascination sought in vain in 
the play as a work of art. 

The "Devil" is a cosmopolitan personage, iron- 
ical, sceptical, amusing, intellectual enough, but a 
shocking bad devil. His daughter is Donna Felici- 
tas (observe the allusion to Italy), who is "dan- 
gerously beautiful." Certain individuals with a 
shady reputation seek the Donna's favour — they are 
Baron Gxenhead (Russia), the Marquis Pompa- 
dour (France), and Lord Whip (England). The 
Donna's father favours the pretensions of Lord 
Whip, who is tremendously rich, but the Donna, an 
unscrupulous and treacherous little thing, flirts 



156 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

around promiscuously. There is a solemn but most 
virtuous Baron somewhere in the background (Ger- 
many) , of whom the reviews tell us disappointingly 
little, save that he also is affectionately inclined to- 
wards Felicitas. 

Oxenhead, Whip, and Pompadour frequently 
come together and play the fool, saying "character- 
istic things," displaying their national idiosyncrasies 
and tickling the audience to ecstasy. We are told 
the play is full of these "good things." There is a 
suspicion, however, that the story drags somewhat, 
for we meet with a wearisome character. Dr. Fiihl- 
horn, a friend of the German Baron, who is con- 
stantly rubbing it into the Baron that the trio of 
strangers are shockingly bad people, and that 
Donna Felicitas is no better than she ought to be. 
This Fiihlhom, we are told, takes special delight in 
raining wordy blows on Lord Whip, and finally 
succeeds in showing his German friend that his dig- 
nity is best preserved by leaving this undesirable 
company to their own wicked designs. 

We hear that the play is full of symbolism of a 
high order, and that Dr. Fiihlhorn "symbolises the 
soul of the German nation in its detached idealism." 

"The War Reconciles" 

We have the following account of a new cinema 
melodrama which is enjoying great popularity in 
Berlin. 

The performance begins with a lengthy poem 
glorifying the services of the cinema to civilisation 
and especially to German Kultur. Three acts fol- 
low, giving the fall and rise of the hero, a naughty 
German noble who has led a wild life, forged names 



THEATRES AND THE DRAMA 157 

to various bills, and generally misconducted him- 
self. He flies to the United States, where so many 
of his kind have preceded him. His lot is hard; 
he hungers, and thinks of the parable of the Prod- 
igal Son. Then he works, and by steady applica- 
tion he rises in the social scale and marries an Amer- 
ican girl — fabulously rich. 

Then the war breaks out. The claims of his 
business, the claims of wife and home, are thrown 
aside as of minor importance. He has only one 
thought — this reformed rascal — ^to fly to his hard- 
pressed Fatherland, attacked on all sides by un- 
scrupulous enemies, and to offer his life for his 
country. In the course of the campaign he per- 
forms prodigies of valour, and is rewarded with the 
Iron Cross — First Class. With this on his breast 
he returns wounded to his parents, who proudly 
clasp him to their hearts and forgive everything. 
We are not told whether the police forgave him. 
The Conservative journals are alone in objecting to 
this beautiful story. German nobles, they say, do 
not forge signatures to bills. 

"The German Armourer" 

The patriotic spectacular play, for which the or- 
dinary stage affords inadequate accommodation, has 
held a large share of public attention. Circuses are 
usually employed for their representation, as there 
is more scope here for massed effects, for coloured 
illuminants, and for the magnetism of the crowd. 
The German Armourer is one of these patriotic dis- 
plays, and was performed with wonderful eclat and 
a magnificent display of properties at Schumann's 
circus in Berlin. The Crown Princess and a vast 



158 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

array of court, military, and society notables were 
present. 

The author of the play is a certain Major Lauff, 
who, in pre-war days, was the Kaiser's own par- 
ticular poet laureate. He has written very purple 
plays about HohenzoUerns, which the Kaiser has 
always insisted on producing with elaborate histor- 
ical settings. They are, of course, of no merit 
from a literary point of view. 

It is clear that The German Armourer has puz- 
zled the newspaper critics. Not one of them is able 
to give any coherent account of what it is about, and 
satisfy themselves with glowing descriptions of the 
gorgeousness of the circus and the elevation of those 
present. But the probable meaning of the piece is 
this — an attempt to display historically, and with the 
necessary trappings, the rise of German arms, and 
their growing strength and varying fortune from 
the time of Barbarossa to the Field Greys of the 
present war. One paper says this Is done with 
"conscientious symbolism" ; another that the spec- 
tacle is "full of flesh and colour"; another that it 
will "mightily attract our youth and spur them to 
deeds of daring and adventure." 

All through what are evidently very wearisome 
scenes there is an Armourer, a prominent member 
of the Royal Opera, who shrilly declaims Major 
Lauff's verses, hammering at the same time a sword 
— the German sword — on an anvil. He begins 
hammering in the remote and half-mythical days of 
Barbarossa, and it is not until the days of the Em- 
peror Maximilian that the admirable artisan is re- 
warded with a knighthood. In little more than an 
hour and a half the entire Prussian history book 
was run through, and we understand that the Crown 



THEATRES AND THE DRAMA 159 

Princess and other representatives of the Hohen- 
zollerns in the Court box were vastly pleased. 
Their attention, it seems, was mainly directed to a 
lady from the Royal Theatre, of majestic build, 
who represented Germania, and whose "sonorous 
organ" rang through the vast spaces of the circus. 



CHAPTER XV 
POETRY AND WAR SONGS 

The Emden — For Children — Up at Britannia ! — Albion — ^A 
Bread Hymn — England's Flag — The Sword of Judg- 
ment — ^The Archangel and a Poet — ^A Clerical Poet. 

We must Include poetry In the number of those 
arts which have received exemplification during the 
war. It is instructive to note how German writers 
use It as a vehicle for Imaginative feeling, as one of 
the great primal human forces which go to the de- 
velopment of their people. But It will be the al- 
most universal verdict that as in music, so In poetry, 
nothing great or enduring has been produced. 
Crude, raw passion there is In abundance, a "sow- 
ing with the whole sack," an absolute lack of re- 
serve and dignity, and a hurried descent to appall- 
ing appeals to the lowest instincts and barbarities 
of the race. 

Subjoined will be found a number of poetical ef- 
fusions arranged chronologically. No attempt has 
been made to render the originals into English 
verse, as it was felt they would only lose In the 
process. 

The "Emden" 

When the Emden was eventually run down there 
went up from this country a certain sigh of relief, 
and, mingled with it, a good deal of quite sincere 

l6o 



POETRY AND WAR SONGS i6i 

admiration for the Emden's commander, Captain 
von Mueller. 

Not that Captain von Mueller had not done 
things which he ought not to have done. In the 
cold light of reason he was little better than a buc- 
caneer, but he was after all a gallant and chivalrous 
buccaneer, and exceedingly clever at his business. 
It is a curious fact that these tributes to Captain von 
Mueller, quite unaffected as they were, have been 
savagely resented in Germany. In a satirical jour- 
nal, Jugend, for example, there Is a "poem" on the 
subject. Literally translated it reads thus: 

Spare him your vile adulation; 
In sooth, he needs it not; 
This hypocritical daubing; 
For what he did, was his duty. 

Now when full fifty keels 
Are to the credit of the brave, 
Would ye play at being noble-natured 
And praise him aloud as a hero? 

Silence, sanctimonious land of fakes. 
What has been done, is done. 
Yet praise from you were shame 
To such a man as he is. 

It would be hard to find a better proof of the in- 
herent ill-conditionedness, perceptible In time of 
peace as in war, of the German temperament. 

For Children 

In the second year of the war Vorwdrts drew at- 
tention to the practice of certain Berlin schoolmas- 
ters compelling their children to learn by heart Lis- 



'i62 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

sauer's disgusting "Hymn of Hate," and con- 
demned it as a degrading course, and contrary to 
all accepted canons of pedagogy. 

Later, the Socialist journal pilloried another 
large communal school in Berlin, where a scurrilous 
piece of doggerel was recited at a social gathering 
when the parents were present. The chorus of this 
gutter lyric was sung with great gusto by the chil- 
dren. There was a verse about the Russians, an- 
other about the French ; but the lines which brought 
down the house were the following: 

Betrayer with the lying tongue, 
Faithless and abandoned England, 
How our sailor lads will thrash thee, 
Ere thou reach the German strand! 

Up at Britannia! 

The principal Agrarian journal, the Deutsche 
Tageszeitung, has a house poet, Fritz von Briesen, 
wl.ose muse in a halting fashion seeks to pluck a 
bay leaf from Lissauer's crown. The following is 
a prose version of his latest: 

"The British seed is ripe for harvest, and the 
German Deed is annealed in hardest steel. Now, 
come what may, now German Sword, strike thy 
strongest blow ! Up at Britannia ! 

"Hurrah! Blue youngsters from Under the 
Sea! They now hunt the Britons on all sides! 
They whack them right sore, the hucksters, until 
each Briton now knows who rules the sea ! Up at 
Britannia ! 

"And Michel! Open the springs of thy heart, 
the source of German goodness, and let stream 
forth the German anger, the Furor Teutonicus shall 



POETRY AND WAR SONGS 163 

be thy only companion at sea! Down with Brit- 
annia 1" 

Albion 

The house poet of the Hamburger Fremdenhlatt, 
Herr Alfred Rebtz, furnishes his newspaper with 
a poem on "Albion," a really exuberant production. 

In vision the poet sees a circus after the model of 
Ancient Rome. In the arena are battling the glad- 
iators of all nations — Celts and Slavs and Scythi- 
ans. Fighting against terrific odds, and a combina- 
tion of all the other gladiators, are the "Ger- 
manen." They meet every wile of their enemy, and 
bear them down with the strokes of their good 
swords. 

High on his throne is Caesar, "a weary man in 
purple." He spreads his robes about him and 
leans over the balustrade smiling. But when he 
sees the "Germanen" forcing back their foes he lifts 
his hands and shouts to the Celts, the Slavs, and the 
Scythians to renew their efforts and smash the 
"Germanen." The "Germanen" raise dark, angry 
eyes to the Lord of the World on his high throne. 
The concluding verse is as follows: "Vain fool! 
the time will come when thy rotten throne will 
crumble, when no strange peoples will fear thee 
longer or fight for thy fame! Hide thyself in thy 
purple mantle, crawl trembling away! The be- 
trayed Germanen will find thee — Albion!" 

A Bread Hymn 

Ernst Lissauer, who has earned considerable no- 
toriety as the author of the "Hymn of Hate," has 
written another poem, entitled "Bread." It ap- 



1 64 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

pears in the latest issue of the Frankfurter Zeitung. 
The following is a prose translation: 

"The Annunciation 

"They cannot force us with weapons. They 
would devastate us with Hunger. Enemies crowd- 
ing on enemies are around us, and over the fron- 
tiers come misery and need. But I will sing for 
you the Annunciation of Spring — our earth is with 
us in alliance, and already the new Bread grows in 
her bosom. 

"Warning 

"Save the food, preserve and honour itl Bread 
is sword! 

"Prayer 

"The farmers have sown the seed. Now let us 
come together and pray the prayer for the harvest. 

" 'Soil of our country ! They cannot force us 
with weapons. They would devastate us with 
Hunger. Rise up in Thy Harvest-Anger I May 
the stalk grow bearing rich corn! Dearest soil on 
earth, hear our Psalm ! Let them be put to shame 
by the rich ears and the blade!' " 

England's Flag 

Ritter von Dombrowski has published a book of 
war verses. Only one poem has any interest for 
the English reader. It is entitled "England's 
Flag," and deals with certain occasions on which 
our ships are alleged to have committed outrages 



POETRY AND WAR SONGS 165 

at sea while treacherously sailing under a foreign 
flag. Here is a prose rendering of some of the 
Ritter's verses: 

"Gott strafe England! This was the cry for re- 
venge which ran though our land. And God heard 
the cry and punished your cowardly shame. 

"The proud lion of England's coat-of-arms is led 
by a ring in his nose. Hucksters lead him. And 
England's flag, crowned with fame, is nothing more 
than a ridiculous and miserable rag. 

"Under foreign colours a cowardly band of rob- 
bers hide themselves, pale and timid. Take my ad- 
vice, England, and decorate your masts with 
women's frocks or babies' wrappings. 

"And so heaven has granted what we have asked. 
You yourselves have shamelessly trodden in the 
dust the sign and token of your power." 

The Sword of Judgment 

Herr Walter Flex, one of the poets of Young 
Germany, has written a poem, entitled "The Sword 
of Judgment," of which the following is a transla- 
tion: 

"The flame of the world-conflagration storms and 
roars, the earth melts in the glow. In God's fist his 
giant hammer reverberates over flood and field." 

"The world has become a human smithy, God 
Himself at the furnace. The hammer rises and 
falls, and the earth-anvil hums in response. 

"A sword of judgment is being forged in the 
glow, a sword over people and times. He into 
whose hand the sword passes will stride over the 
earth. 

"Before God's smithy in the storm of night the 



1 66 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

great ones of earth are wrangling. Greed for the 
sword, thirst for power courses hot through all 
their veins. 

"You princes! Whose oath-hand is pure? 
Which of you dare hold God's sword? Arise, Ger- 
man Kaiser! The sword is thine! God leaves it 
with thee as thine." 

The Archangel and a Poet 

The Lokal Anzeiger, in a recent number, pub- 
lishes a lengthy poem by Rudolf Herzog, Ger- 
many's most popular novelist, entitled "From Zeb- 
dou to Laghouat." The poem describes the al- 
leged sufferings of a number of German prisoners 
arrested by the French in Morocco and marched to 
the coast under a strong military escort. The 
French authorities stated at the time that these Ger- 
mans had been guilty of treacherous attempts to 
stir up the natives to revolt, and that on the desert 
march to the coast they were exposed to no greater 
rigours than those inseparable from the climate, or 
than those cheerfully borne by the military escort. 

Herzog's poem is an inset in the figure of a gi- 
gantic picture of the Archangel Michael, who is 
represented as heavily armed in steel. Around the 
Archangel there are flickering tongues of fire to 
symbolise, probably, his celestial radiance. Both 
hands are clenched and held in a highly commina- 
tory manner, and his face bears an expression of 
rage and hatred which is demoniacal. The satanic 
attitude and expression, with the accompanying 
flames, are reminiscent rather of pictures we have 
seen of angels who have fallen from their high es- 
tate. 



POETRY AND WAR SONGS 167 

The poem itself Is a genuine Hun effusion, sup- 
posed to be the cry for vengeance of the "martyrs" 
who made the march to the coast. The last verse 
runs : "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and 
no mercy for the enemy who sank to butchery. The 
desert mirage, that mocked, the endless track that 
drank the blood of the martyrs, the marching in 
tottering ranks! Oh, we shall hammer into the 
enemy's foreheads the words 'Zebdou and Lag- 
houat.' " 

If Herr Rudolf Herzog, who used to bear the 
reputation of a humane and cultured man of let- 
ters, will allow his memory to go back a few years 
he will recall an incident in the Herero war, when 
General von Trotha deliberately drove 16,000 of 
this unfortunate tribe, mostly old men, women, and 
children, into a part of the desert where he knew 
there were no wells. He will recall the awful fact 
that only a remnant of the 16,000 escaped the hor- 
rors of death from thirst. We recommend to him 
the perusal of the Reichstag debates on that dis- 
graceful episode. 

A Clerical Poet 

Ottokar Kernstock published a volume of war 
verses. The profits were to go to a war charity. 
The Arheiter Zeitung feels a loathing for these 
verses, "with their bombastic and romantic trap- 
pings," which are neither more nor less than "brutal 
hate writings belonging to the stock-in-trade of the 
clique who have this war on their consciences." 

There is one "poem," called "Prayer Before the 
Battle of the Huns," in which Kernstock Informs 
us that it is their own fault that God has not long 



1 68 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

ago assisted the Central Powers In their struggle 
against Serbs and Italians, Russians, French, and 
English. It is because they were "slack" that they 
must now suffer. In another "poem," called 
"Ideas," Germany and her allies are "heroes and 
pure as angels," and the enemy "an army of de- 
vouring vultures," "dehumanised hordes of the 
lowest land devastators and barbarians," "ruffianly 
robbers and cunning, lustful felines." Coming to 
particulars, the Russians are "depraved hordes of 
Slavs," the Serbs a "brood," the French "wild game 
of Paris," the Italians "foreign foxes," and the 
British "the cruel sons of Mammon and Eris." 
Eris, it will be remembered, was the lady in the 
Hesiodic theogony who threw the famous apple of 
discord among the guests at a certain marriage fes- 
tival. 

Kernstock, who is a clergyman as well as a poet, 
apparently finds infinite delight in calling on the 
Almighty for assistance, and implores his Maker 
"to be deaf to the entreaties of our enemies." He 
is certain of victory, for "the Celestial Hosts are 
with us, and St. Michael is our Field-Marshal." 
His description of the battle in the Masurian Lake 
district contains this passage : "Then God nodded, 
and the Revenger came and drew his vengeful 
sword, and those who escaped the sword were 
choked in the mud of the swamps." 

In a fine frenzy of wild writing he asks his com- 
patriots to strike, thrust, murder, and burn; and the 
vine dressers especially are conjured to press the 
"blood-red wine" out of the Italian foreigner. The 
Arbeiter Zeitung asks: "Is this publicly uttered de- 
lirium of blood fever, accompanied by cries for 
God's assistance, not open blasphemy?" 



CHAPTER XVI 
BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH 

Are we Hypocrites? — England, a Lie — The Anglo-Saxon 
Soul — The World's Tyrant — Perfide Albion — London 
Pictures. 

The war had not lasted many days when the cry 
arose from all sorts and conditions of Germans that 
"England was the enemy." For more than three 
years not a day has passed without our hearing this 
solemn asseveration. France, Russia, even Italy, 
were enemies in a minor degree. They were all 
base, it is true, all guilty of high crimes and mis- 
demeanours against Germany, all besmirched with 
the vices of greed and envy, but England was the 
criminal without the pale, England was the quin- 
tessence of brutality, cunning, hypocrisy, the incar- 
nation of all that is satanic, and therefore the enemy 
par excellence. Out of the innumerable articles in 
German periodicals having England and the Eng- 
lish as their theme it is not so much our purpose to 
reproduce those which are characterised by extreme 
extravagance of language, as to offer a brief pre- 
sentment of average opinion. It will be seen that 
average opinion remains pretty much the opinion 
which Treitschke expressed nearly fifty years ago: 
"England blocks the way to the growth of Ger- 
many from a European into a World Power. She 
is the Robber State, sprawling across one-fifth of 

169 



I7Q SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

the world, though rotten to the core and moribund," 
We are to remember that "average opinion," dur- 
ing all the fifty years since these words were writ- 
ten, believed as Treitschke believed, that war with 
England was the solemn and inevitable duty of 
virile Germany, led by Prussia. 

Are we Hypocrites? 

Baron von der Goltz, a relative of the late Field- 
Marshal, occupies a divinity chair in the Univer- 
sity of Berlin. He writes on The Face of Eng- 
land, and discusses the question whether the British 
are hypocrites. 

Baron von der Goltz is one of the best-known 
professors at the University of Berlin. In a chap- 
ter which he contributes to a book called The Face 
of England, the Baron discusses the question, 
whether the mask worn by England is that of the 
pious hypocrite? He finds the question difficult to 
answer, although he can quite understand the prev- 
alence of a belief that England's piety is a political 
as well as a religious attitude, and that where poli- 
tics and religion come into conflict in England's his- 
tory she has invariably decided in favour of her 
terrestrial, and to the injury of her celestial, in- 
terests. 

Herr von der Goltz writes very learnedly about 
the differences which have always existed between 
our ecclesiastical systems and the national compre- 
hension of religion. The old Celtic Church, the 
Roman Rule which succeeded it, the Protestantism 
of Henry III {sic), which was superinduced on this 
Rule, and all later systems and rules and move- 



BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH 171 

merits have never expressed the nation's real heart, 
with the result that a religious mask has grown over 
the face of the people difficult to remove or pene- 
trate. 

Added to this the enormous growth of riches and 
luxury on one hand, and the gross neglect of the 
poorer classes on the other, have made it impos- 
sible that true religion can deeply influence the 
masses. There is much religiosity in England, but 
little real religion. The English perhaps are not 
conscious hypocrites, but their general character is 
one of falseness and unreliability. Such, in brief, 
seem to be the Baron's conclusions. 

England a Lie 

Count Posadowsky, who filled the office of Im- 
perial Home Secretary in Prince Biilow's Chancel- 
lorship, writes to the Leipziger Tageblatt on "The 
Lie as Great Power." Of course England is the 
embodiment of the Lie. 

It is the Count's belief — or rather his professed 
belief — ^that England's whole history, past and 
present, is founded on untruth, deception, and hy- 
pocrisy. 

It requires a forehead of brass, writes the Count, 
to maintain that Germany will suppress the free- 
dom of the world, and that England is the pioneer 
of liberty. England is the one nation which has 
persistently misused her power, which has brought 
half the world under her dominion by intrigue and 
violence of an unexampled character, which claims 
the sovereignty of all the seas, and has established 
a rule In India on the same footing as the abso- 



172 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

lutism of Russia. One may study In the history of 
England and her Colonies, says the Count, innu- 
merable instances of her misuse of power in her 
arrogant treatment of other independent States. 

The Anglo-Saxon Soul 

Dr. Troeltsch, an eminent philosopher, lectured 
on "The Anglo-Saxon Soul" to large audiences 
throughout the country. The following is a 
resume of a lecture, delivered, it is stated, to the 
"intellectual elite of Berlin." 

According to Dr. Troeltsch, our civilisation 
shows two directions, one "Christian-liberal-demo- 
cratic," pertaining to our middle classes, the other 
pertaining to our upper classes, which he calls 
"Conservative-ruling-despotic." Our civilisation, 
such as it is, goes back to the Tudor period. The 
moral philosophy of the British justifies every act 
of the imperialistic dominating class, and seeks to 
show how these acts are conformable to Christian- 
ity. The English believe they are the Elect. This 
belief makes them regard every success as moral. 
The success of an action is the best proof of its 
morality. 

The "National Egoism" of the British was badly 
trounced by Troeltsch. Everything we do in our 
imperialistic mission in the world is marked by this 
egoism. The Anglo-Saxon way is first the Bible, 
then trade, then the flag. Troeltsch asked his au- 
dience not to believe in British anti-militarism and 
pacifism. There is not a pacifist among us who is 
not ready to justify any action which is to the na- 
tion's political advantage. 



BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH 173 



The World Tyrant 

By the editor of the Tdgliche Rundschau: 
England can only be conquered by might, never 
by arrangement or negotiation. England is the 
world-tyrant, which has led the nations into this 
war, and which alone maintains the continuance of 
the war until she has accomplished her object — the 
final removal of a dangerous competitor. It is Eng- 
land we must make to suffer if we are to have peace. 
But in order to do this, to adopt a sentence of 
Clausewitz, we must liberate ourselves from an un- 
reasoning want of confidence in the powers which 
God has given us. Hitherto we have stood up 
against a world of enemies. Whether they will or 
not, we shall compel them to reason. And God 
will continue to be with us. 

"Perfide Albion" 

The Kolnische Zeitung regales its readers with a 
diverting article on "The English Manner of Ex- 
pression." The conclusion of the Rhenish journal 
is that we are just as much "perfide Albion" now 
as we were in the days of Napoleon. 

No German who has been any length of time in 
England, says this journal, and who has mixed with 
Englishmen in trains, hotels, or lodging-houses, that 
has not been struck with our manner of expression. 
Our talk is confined to the weather, to hotel con- 
ditions, to food, and impending sporting events. 
The Englishman hates to be decisive. He says, 
"That is too outspoken," and he laughs or makes 



174 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

a deprecatory gesture when a stranger expresses a 
strong view. 

The Britisher hates "outspoken." He does not 
want to unveil himself. This veiling is a great Eng- 
lish art. It is a trick, and in political and business 
relations It plays a very dangerous role. Its ob- 
ject is to induce confidence, to get the stranger off 
his guard. The Britisher appears a simple, in- 
genuous person, but it is not so. He is the refine- 
ment of cunning. 

The war has taught Germany a lot about those 
unscrupulous and selfish Britishers, and after it is 
over it will be for the Germans to alter their atti- 
tude to the perfidious islanders. "We will no 
longer be the victims of their wiles." The Kdl- 
nische says "it will be absolutely necessary to be on 
one's guard, and to mistrust every expression of 
English friendliness. In the past our diplomatists, 
journalists, and traders were guilty of fateful mis- 
takes in attaching a wrong meaning to the English 
manner of expression. The agile Englishman uses 
his smooth and colourless language to deceive the 
nations in every direction. His thoughts are never 
theirs, and the secret depths of his soul are un- 
fathomable. He has a proverb about it: You 
never get to the bottom of an Englishman." 

London Pictures 

The Vossische Zeitiing describes a London Sun- 
day and a recruiting scene. 

"Are we aware, for example, that it is quite a 
customary thing for respectable male citizens of 
London on Sunday mornings to dress themselves in 
their Sunday best, and with their gilt-edged hymn- 



BRITAIN AND THE BRITISH 175 

books under their arms to repair in twos and threes 
to a crowded gambhng and drinking club in the 
neighbourhood of a church, where they pass the 
hours of divine service, and that they then return 
to their homes, where they discuss with their wives 
and children the points of the sermons they are 
supposed to have heard?" 

The writer tells us also something new about re- 
cruiting in London. The description applies to a 
poverty-stricken quarter, "where vice and misery 
grinned at one another." There was a recruiting 
station round the corner, and "newly baked" sol- 
diers were grouped around it. From a side street 
the sounds of a cornet, "out of tune, patriotic, sen- 
timental." Probably a blind man playing for cop- 
pers. No, it was the English method of recruit- 
ing. The musician played "God Save the King," 
and his companion mounted a step-ladder and 
harangued the crowd about mutilated children, vio- 
lated women, and aged men burnt to death; also 
about England's "glory." The cornet man then 
played "Kathleen Mavourneen," or "Home, Sweet 
Home." Men hurried past as though afraid of 
being caught in the net, children played in the gut- 
ter, and women gossiped about the dear times. 
People in the greengrocer's shop grinned, and the 
butcher busied himself with the carcass of a horse. 

In the distance, coming nearer, a fife-and-drum 
band. "They're always the same lot," was the 
remark of a woman with a horseflesh beefsteak un- 
der her arm. The woman was right. They were 
the same lot. It was a crowd of stage figures, de- 
lirious drunkards, fished out of the streets and led 
about like tame bears. "The impression was 
sought to be given that these fellows were recruited 



176 SIDELIGHTS ON GERMANY 

from pure patriotic enthusiasm." "They were 
marching about in their own rags." The crowd 
indulged in noise and laughter, the man at the cor- 
ner with the trumpet played "Tipperary," the man 
on the step-ladder bawled to the playing children, 
and the ladies continued their talk about the dear- 
ness of things. 



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